Mountains and Molehills
Have you ever felt like life is unfair? Have you ever believed you were unloved or that no one treated you as you should be? Maybe you have lost hope and joy because life is too hard, or you don’t see a way through anymore. God promises that if we trust Him for all our needs, He will always be here for us. He will never leave us without His support. Join in on the conversation today about mountains and molehills.
Diana’s Notes
Hello everybody!!! And welcome to today’s episode of Mountains and MoleHills here on Heartfelt Conversations with me, Diana! LOL, I’m not sure what you're up to today—going to the store, working on a project, driving, or pulling weeds—but whatever is on your plate, thanks for letting me be a part of your day! That means a great deal to me, and I’m so glad you tuned in!
In the last episode, Looove Graffiti, we had a dialogue about the awkwardness of puberty, all those hormones and feelings, and the misery that comes with it. At least that was my experience. But my dad stopped playing with me the way I was used to, and when that stopped, I thought his love stopped. That put our relationship in a bit of a gutter. I pulled away from my dad because I thought he had first pulled away from me. I thought he didn’t care, but later learned he was unaware. He was unaware of how I felt.
The notes from last week included a link to Pastor Eric’s message, "A Love Gone Unaware," and I encourage you to check it out.
In the message, Pastor Eric referenced how we can be completely unaware of God’s love for us, much like children are unaware of everything our earthly parents have done for us. We can confuse their response to our wants with their level of love for us. We are unaware that maybe their response is from a position of love because they have wisdom and experience that we do not. Or, I think a lot of our frustration comes from feeling our parents, or other people, do not want to help us, or give us what we think we need, but the reality may be that they simply don’t have the ability.
I remember when I stayed at home to take care of the kids when they were young, and when they came to the age to want to do after-school sports, or even just a decent pair of shoes or school clothes that weren't outdated, from the cheap stores. And my heart, my desire, my want to was all in, but my ability to give them simple basic stuff wasn’t there. It mattered to me because they are my kiddos, and I wanted to spoil them in every way possible, but financially, it wasn’t easy. And that is where time, maturity, and having your own family start to help you recognize and realize that your parents may not have been withholding anything from you because their position towards you was negative, but rather just life, circumstances, challenges, and just our weaknesses prevent us from being perfect parents.
Most people do the best with what they know and what they have. And what we know is often dependent upon our own upbringing. There is no perfect set of parents or a parent who has not struggled or faced fear and failure in some way. All of us, no matter who we are, have fallen short of God’s standards of goodness, holiness, and purity. His glory.
Romans 3:23-
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the Redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
One of the quickest ways to bring healing, some goodness, and life back into your life is to let go of the standards you have set for people to live up to. Perfection. Pedestals. Thrones and Positions.
My attitude, my pride, because I was a young pre-teen/teen girl, I got caught up in the web of my emotions, feelings, and hormones. I did not have clear guidance as to what I was experiencing, so my flesh and mind created their own cover story. The problem was, it was a cover-up story of lies that Satan was weaving deeper and deeper into the broken places of my heart and soul, creating a considerable distance of trust and bonding and growing and teaching between me and my dad. And Satan is using this very same tactic with us as adults with all of the wounds of our childhood, or youth, or maybe even later in life, but at some point, Satan rocks the boat and tries to get us to fall out. Jesus wants you whole and healed, and knowing who you are in Him means you can step out of the boat, not fall out or be tossed out.
Our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coaches, bosses, and spouses may have failed us, and maybe we have failed ourselves, but we are promised that God will never fail. God is incapable of failing.
Psalms 46:1
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” – Psalm 46:1
Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10
When you feel like life is unfair, that your parents did not love you, no one treated you the way you should have been treated so now you are just gonna take from anyone who comes across your path. Take their joy, peace, and time, all because we avoid the truth of who we are, allowing ourselves to become. But God promises that if we trust in Him for all of our needs and don’t be greedy or rude, but trust Him, that He will always be there for you, He will never leave you without support.
This week, let this verse strengthen you to stand confidently, hoping that God will come through for you. You may not see it or know how, but you know He is coming with what you need!
Hebrews 13:5
Let your character [your moral essence, your inner nature] be free from the love of money [shun greed—be financially ethical], being content with what you have; for He has said, “I WILL NEVER [under any circumstances] DESERT YOU [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], NOR WILL I FORSAKE or LET YOU DOWN or RELAX MY HOLD ON YOU [assuredly not]!”
How are you supposed to be content while waiting on God and trusting that He will show up?
By remembering what he has already done for you. Get a journal and one day, sit down and start looking back throughout your life and recall the things you have been through, done, accomplished, failed, and recovered, all the stuff of life, and nothing took you down for good. You are still standing, you are still here. That means God has a plan, a purpose, a mission He created for you to accomplish, so let Him finish by starting with remembering:
Isaiah 46:9-11 (Amp)
“Remember [carefully] the former things [which I did] from ages past; For I am God, and there is no one else; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end and the result from the beginning, And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’ (Skipping down to the end of verse 11): Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, be assured I will do it.
Don’t get hung up on your past. Thinking if you had better parents, if you had made better decisions, if, if, if…. Take all your ifs and give them to God. Tell Him your dreams, needs, desires, and broken and tattered “if onlys,” and He will hear you. He wants to bring comfort to you. He has made you for so much more!
You cannot reach the summit of success if you are always getting stuck in the molehills of life.
Colossians 2:8-10 (Message)
Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize Christ's fullness and the universe's emptiness without Him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
An emptiness came over me when things changed between me and my dad. A little hurt, a small wound to my heart. That is all the enemy needs to plant his lies and deception into that wound. Jesus died so that we may be healed. Why, why did He die for you? That makes no sense. But, He does not just want to be a God, not just your God, but your Father. His whole desire is to bless you and pour His favor all over you. To anoint you with blessing as His child. When you finally come to the end of trying to figure out other people, trying to figure out yourself, trying to figure out the mysteries of this Universe, and fully surrender to the One Who Alone is the Creator of the Universe. The Maker of your soul is the ONLY ONE WHO can fill your emptiness. Whatever that emptiness may be, it does not matter. He is the Only One Who will ever be able to fulfill what you need.
We must learn to live unashamed before God when we have received His Son, Jesus, as our Savior. The purpose of what Jesus accomplished was to remove the chasm between God and mankind. When we do mess up, because we will, it is human nature, the flesh as the bible, the Word calls it, when we do fall short, do not hide. Do not hide from God.
Run to Him as fast as you can. Get in front of Him and worship and sing and tell Him He is awesome and thank Him for all He has already done.
We forget all the moments in our lives when there was an intervention, an interruption of our circumstances right before we thought we were at the end. We saw no hope, no way, no out; but! But God!
Thank Him for all those times! And see how He will bring you peace and rest as you now quietly wait for His appearance in this circumstance. When we don’t box God into some religious set of rules or deny Him access to our lives, and allow Him to BE God, I AM, and we stop being wise in our own eyes, the path changes from briar patches and rough paths to an adventure that is only just beginning.
God has so much more for us than we can ever imagine. You have been created for more! So much more!!
Are you ready, are you ready for an adventure of a lifetime??
We must learn to follow God’s truth so we do not get lost, confused, unable to discern right from wrong, or truth from deception. God’s word is our compass to guide us safely to eternal life while living this one.
His Word is what will keep us from being stuck on the molehills of our lives and free us up to see who we are IN Him. The mountaintop of victory is to know who we are in HiWhenhen we have victory in that one area of our life than the valley’s, the shadows of death no longer have power over us, but If we are reliant upon ourselves, others, the universe rather than the Creator of the universe we will be stuck in negative thoughts, negative words, negative pursuits, negative relationships. Negative, dead, unfulfilled lives.
God’s word is not to trap you in a bunch of dead rules, it is the exact opposite. As we learn to just trust God to be God and His word His His word then it begins to shine and shed some light on our life.
Things slowly start to sort out from the shadows, we begin to see our way out of the dark and begin a new life, an awakened life in Him.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
God’s Word can illuminate the right path we should take, especially when we are at a crossroads, we are having to make difficult decisi,ons while we are “feeling” uncertain.
His Word keeps us from feeling rejected by the world and helps keep us grounded in knowing who we are.
My attitude toward my dad not only hurt him, but it hurt me, because it hurt “us”, dad and daughter. It put a chasm between us because I allowed a gap, a mistrust to come between us.
And that is what can happen between us and our heavenly Father if we are not careful and are not aware of His love toward us personally.
That is the key to everything with God: it is personal, intimate, and individual. Earnest.
According to Oxford Dictionary, earnest means:
Resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction:
It’s an attribute, a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone…:
An earnest prayer to God is coming from someone whose very personhood, the most intimate, inherent portion of their soul, is recognizing Him as God on High, God Almighty, giving Him glory and honor. When we truly seek Him, not a way to manipulate our way through prayer and then say it doesn’t work - no, the truth is- God’s Truth can not be manipulated, manufactured, coerced, changed, altered, or ignored. As He already told us in Isaiah, He will fulfill all that He has purposed, and it will come to pass at some point in His time and no one else's.
He is giving us an opportunity to jump on board before we miss the train.
Will you let him finish your story by helping you recognize His path, his plan, and the victorious story He has already written for you? Will you let Him guide you and reveal every good thing He has already prepared for you? Will you let Him help you discover all that you were made for?
Remember!!! God’s not done with your story yet.
Remember!!! All that He has already done over the years.
Remember!!! To seek after Him earnestly, and you can always have confidence that He hears your prayers.
One more verse in James where we are told” the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results”
Hear that, when our prayers are earnest and we are in right standing with God through our belief in Jesus, having received Him as our Savior, our prayers have not just power, great power! And not just Great Power, but add to that we get the benefit of what our prayer produces, which are wonderful results.
James 5:16:
I love the way it reads in the Amp Bible:
Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses],
(In other words, live with integrity, honor, character, truth, and honesty before all, and when you mess up, fess up.)
And pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored.
(Pray for other people; don’t get stuck just focusing on yourself; remember others in your prayers. God loves generosity, and caring for others shows a generous heart.)
The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer)
(If you are a believer, you are a person in right standing with God because of what Jesus did, not because of what you do.)
is able to accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].
( Team up with God!!! Do you need a powerful partnership to shift and shake up your world?? Team up with God, and you will see and experience dynamic and tremendous power at work in your life and all those around you.
God is very aware of you. He knows the number of hairs on your head, and He has a good plan for your future. He cares about you and has so much more for you and me.
Okay, you got me! LOL, one more verse about how valuable you are to God:
Luke 12:7 (NLT) - And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.
We may live in an imperfect world, but God loves us perfectly every time!
Because God has intimate knowledge of us, warts and all, as they say, and yet He cares deeply for each individual person.
Let’s choose to let Him in and have full access to our lives!!!
Pastor Amiq shared a message a few weeks ago, Made For More.
You can find the link for Made For More on -
Heartfeltconversations.com -https://www.heartfeltconversations.com/
You can also go to Valleyfamilychurch.org, the YouTube page, and find the message there.
And here we are again, out of time.
Father, thank you for every person listening today, and I pray and ask for Your divine hand of protection and provision over them today!
I pray for every person listening, that You would meet them right where they are. Heal all the broken places, heart, mind, body, soul, spirit. Release them from the strongholds and the dark shadows that choke out Your Presence, Your Goodness, Your Love. Replace fear with faith and sorrow with joy. Show them that they were never alone, not even for one moment. Thank You for Jesus, for His sacrifice, for the Blood of the Lamb and for new life!
We give you, Father, God, ALL the praise, glory, and honor! Forevermore!
We ask for all of Your favor and blessings as we learn to follow Your ways. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen!
Be generous towards others, Be Kind to yourself. Stay sweet. Stay rooted in the word. And, choose life—real life’s life that He has for you!
The link to Pastor Amiq’s message:
Pastor Amiq: Made For More
Made For More | Pastor Amiq Gill
Songs to inspire you
Chris Tomlin - Faithful (Lyric Video)
Waymaker (Lyric Video) | Leeland
Matt Redman - Never Once [with lyrics]
Foundation Verse
Romans 8:11
The Spirit of God, Who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living in you. “
Additional Resources
Prayer of Salvation
Jesus has given salvation, healing, and countless benefits to all who call upon His name. These benefits can be yours if you receive Him into your heart by saying this prayer:
Heavenly Father, I come to You admitting that I am a sinner. Right now, I choose to turn away from sin, and I ask You to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I believe that Jesus rose again from the dead so that I may be justified and made righteous through faith in Him. I call upon the name of Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of my life. Jesus, I choose to follow You, and I ask that You fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit. I declare right now that I am a born again, child of God. I am free from sin and full of the righteousness of God. I am saved in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This prayer and the comment above, were taken out of the book:
Secrets to Powerful Prayer - Discovering the Languages of the Heart
By Lynne Hammond and Patsy Cameneti
If you have just received Jesus as your Savior, please write Lynne Hammond Ministries at:
PO Box 29469
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55429-2946
Or, email one of the ministries listed on the Additional Resources Tab and let them know that you are a brand new Christian and need some direction on the next steps for your new life in Christ.
Or email us here at Heartfelt Conversations with Diana and we will pass along your information for you.
Congratulations if you are a brand new Christian or if you have Returned Home! Welcome!!! Get in God’s Word and get it into you!
Diana’s Home Church:
Valley Family Church - Pastor’s Eric and Alexa Jones
www.valleyfamilychurch.org
Other recommended Jesus-centered churches who teach the True Word of God:
Elevation Church - Steven Furtick
https://elevationchurch.org/
Joseph Prince Ministries - Joseph Prince
https://www.josephprince.org/
Joyce Meyer Ministries
https://joycemeyer.org/