Step Out In Faith by Nina Keegan Owens

Do you ever look back at some of those pretty rough time periods you have had to face in your life and think in amazement how everything miraculously worked out for the good in the end even though at the time things seemed pretty bleak?

Do you often feel like you are always having to take a detour in your life, the less than scenic route, the long way home so to speak to get the answers you need. Nothing is just simple and uncomplicated. You know now that God was always there with you before but you just could not see it at the time. He is with you now too! Adverse times in our lives are meant to stretch our faith, and strengthen our relationship with God.

In the natural realm things often seem impossible like there is no way out. In the spiritual realm, God is the great I AM. He is always what we need, when and where we need it. His grace is sufficient! He is continually at work safeguarding us, our families and blessing us with His anointed favor. Sometimes it just takes a while to see His hand at work. Just keep the Faith! God will never fail you. He loves you more than you can possibly imagine!

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Some of you may be facing tough times right now and you can't believe what you are having to go through. You pray and trust God but there does not seem to be an answered prayer in sight. Things sometimes appear to go from bad to worse and you wonder what God is doing.

I refer to these times of uncertainty as loving faith stretchers. When we are at our very lowest and when we can finally get out of our own way to make room for God to work, is when we will begin to rise above our circumstances. God will always give you the help and the strength you need not just to win the battle, but to win the war. Scripture says, with one touch of God's favor the tide of the battle turns. God is a warrior when it comes to us. He will never stop loving you nor stop fighting for you!

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I believe there are so many messages and lessons learned during our times of struggle. I believe God wants to strip us down and bear our souls as we trust Him to take over and work on our behalf. He meets us right where we are in the midst of our giant mess. He allows us to go through such uncomfortable situations and circumstances so in the end, we are left alone with only Him and our faith in all He can do. He again is all we will ever need!

When we have finally given rise to the unmerited fact that there is no earthly way we can go it alone and crawl out of our own depths of despair, we are left on our knees submitting all to the one that can and will always take care of us. We need to stay fixed and focused on Jesus. Seek his face first! When we are weak, He is strong! 2 Corinthians 12:10.

When we realize that we cannot go through these trials on our own, when we commit them to God, we start to see results. We need to stop giving our problems an out of control, life of their own. We talk about them, analyze them all, call all our friends to talk about them some more,and we do everything in our own power to the point of exhaustion to control the situation. The answer is always as close as the name Jesus! The name above all names. We at long last need to relinquish it all and cast it completely off to God. Only then, will we begin to receive answers to our prayers and solutions to our problems.

John 14:13-14
Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

When we step out of our comfort zone of trying to control everything in our lives and take that blind leap of faith, we will finally get that break through coupled with the realization of knowing it was nothing but the shear grace of God that had removed the burden from our lives, or saw us through it all.

Sometimes God needs us to first be obedient, responsible and step out in faith. He needs us to take action. Activate our faith. We must take the steps, trust God, and put forth the effort to let Him run the show. We open doors full of blessings and solutions in our eyes of faith. God works through our uncomfortable times because we are more easily shaped through our own vulnerability.

The Bible says we are all like clay in the potter's hands. If you have ever worked with clay you know that it starts out very hard and not easily pliable. You have to really knead it and work it to break it down. It takes time and muscle but eventually it becomes soft and smooth and we can then mold it into beautiful things.

We are that clay, we start out hard and rough but every time we fully rely on God and step out in faith, we soften just a bit more therefore allowing Him to shape us into who He made us to be.

There is so many stories in the Bible where we see people having to completely step out in faith and first be obedient before they saw their miracles come to pass. I recall the story of when Jesus met up with a blind man requesting that Jesus restore his sight. Jesus made a paste of mud and put it on the blind man's eyes. Then what we see next is a real faith stretcher. Jesus tells the blind man to go off to the river and wash the mud from his eyes, then his eyes would be healed and he would see again. Now we all know that Jesus could have healed this man's eyes instantly yet he chose not to. One touch is all it would have taken yet Jesus sent a blind man off to find a river to wash in first. This had to be a rather difficult task for someone that was blind. Why would Jesus send him off like that? Jesus wanted the blind man to step out in faith and trust Him. Imagine the thoughts and the excitement the man felt on his way to the river. His faith was growing in every step he took. His anticipation of being able to see for the first time in his life was strengthening his faith. He first had to obey and step out in faith to activate the healing power of God.

Once when Moses was in the wilderness with the children of Israel, they had been walking a very long way and were exhausted and extremely thirsty. When they finally came upon a river, the water was bitter and not fit to drink. Moses, discouraged, cried out to God. God then told Moses to chop a certain large tree down that was beside the river and cast it in to the water then it would become clean and pure for drinking. I imagine the last thing that they wanted to do at that time was chop down a large tree! They were already so hot, tired and thirsty. They had to step out in faith believing and trusting God for the clean water. With every chop into the thick tree bark they were growing in certainty and testimony. When they finally cast the tree into the river, the water was instantly made clean and clear.

Sometimes we need to go through the rough times and flounder out of our comfort zones for us to grow in our faith. Each time we trust God with a our problems, we are putting another stepping stone of faith on our path. God wants to test us and make sure we are trusting Him. We must bring all our cares and concerns straight to Him and cast them off like the tree was cast into the river. When we do just that, we set in place the motions we need for our break throughs. God will always give you a plan of action. He may give you tasks first, big or small, but any task He gives will serve a mighty purpose on our road to peace, faith, security, health and prosperity. Just pray you won't have to build an ark!😘

Remember always to step out in faith and trust in the Lord for all you need and for anything you are going through. You are so much closer than you think! God's timing is always perfect and someday soon you will look back at this time and say, "God you were right there with me the whole time, I see that clearly now!"😇

Thank you Father that you are always right here with us and no matter what is going on in our lives, we can step out in faith and trust you to handle it all according to your will for us.
We praise you in Jesus name!!
Amen!!!🙏

God Is Our Strong Tower by Nina Keegan Owens

Do you ever feel like you are continually having to scale up steep and tumultuous hills in your life? Do you often feel like everyday is an uphill battle? It seems just when it appears you are getting some traction, gaining some ground and securing your footing, you slip, you backslide, and you continually feel like it is always one step forward and three steps back.

You get overwhelmed and frustrated and feel like giving up. You often ask yourself where God is and why does He seem so far away from you and the battles you are facing.

God is never far from us, our times, good and bad are in His hands. We need to be confident in His ability and His willingness to see us through all we face. We need to just trust God and believe that He will work it all out for our good! He knows way more than we ever could and His timing in our lives is perfect.

Psalm 31:14-15
I trust in, rely on, and am confident in You, O Lord; I say, You are my God. My times are in your hands.

God is never far away, in fact He is always right there on stand by waiting for you to call upon His name. He is our refuge. Our weakness is His strength. I am sure there are many times in all of our lives when we felt like God was not answering our prayers but today, if we look back at those same situations, we can see exactly what God was doing and now from this perspective we would not change a thing! The Bible says that God will always perfect all that concerns us!

Growing up near Chicago Illinois, the winters would get pretty harsh, the roads would get very snowy and icy, l""there would even be freezing rain and sleet. Often blizzard like conditions would cover the area in blankets of white making it virtually impossible to travel. I can still hear the roaring sound of the snow plows late at night trying to keep up with the mounds of blowing snow. Often all that snow plow activity in the middle of the night would mean a "snow day"at school!! A day off to play in the snow is the way we saw it as kids. It was really meant to keep people home and safe from the dangerous and icy road conditions.
People would often put snow chains on their tires and the city salt trucks would would be out in full force salting the roads to provide extra traction. News and radio announcements would continually be reporting updates on road and school and business closings.

Even though one would take all these necessary safety precautions for better and safer conditions, the roads would still be extremely slick, cars would still slide and spin out of control landing them in the snow drifted ditches. The road sides were often littered with cars that just could not make it during the hazardous blizzard like storms and people would just have to abandon their cars to be dug out later. Getting a rescue ride home in a tow truck was not out of the ordinary.

Sometimes life hands us slick roads, we often feel like we have no traction and our lives are aimlessly spinning out of control. But God is ALWAYS in control. The Bible says He is our Rock and a Strong Tower, a shelter over us during any and all tumultuous times in our lives.

Psalm 18:2-3
The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I trust and take refuge, my shield, and a horn of my salvation, my Strong Tower. I call upon The Lord, Who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.

God wants us to live peaceful and joyous lives regardless of what's going on around us. We can feel out of control but remain in control. We can cast any and all uphill battles off to the Lord and go about our days knowing and trusting that God is taking care of it all!! He cares about every last detail of our lives. God never sleeps so we can sleep! God wants us to pour our hearts out to Him and look to Him first. We must pray our hearts desires out to Him and let God take it from there. We must believe that God can and will do all He says He will. The Bible is full of God's truths for our lives. When we line up our situations with the word of God; we are claiming that victory for ourselves and our situations.

We must know the word of God for ourselves so we can draw from that wisdom and knowledge when the icy roads in our lives metaphorically rear their ugly heads.

Knowing what the word of God says provides us with a clear and detailed blueprint on how to handle turmoil, conflicts, and crisis of any kind. He provides us peace in the midst of the chaos and a calming rest in the middle of our storms. We can declare victory over any uphill battle we face when we are covered in the full amour of God.

Isaiah 26:3
God guards me, keeps me in perfect and constant peace because my mind is stayed on Him, because I commit myself to Him, lean on Him and I Hope confidently in Him.

The Lord lovingly and unselfishly sent His precious only Son Jesus to suffer gravely and to die a tortured and horrendous death for us...for you, for me, because He loves us that much!

Imagine that kind of perfect love.... If God did not withhold His only child from us, surely He will not withhold our needs and the answers to our prayers.


1 John 4:18
His perfect love casts out all fears!

Trust The Lord today with everything you are facing, let Him rain peace down over you and your loved ones and let His perfect love blanket your concerns and clothe you in His righteous presence as you trust and believe in Him for all you need today! His grace will always be sufficient for us and even though we may feel like in the flesh we are failing, we were all bought with a precious price. He is our strong portion of everything and He is our redeemer forever.

Heavenly Father, thank you that when we are weak you are strong! Thank you for lifting us up during times of need as you help us to scale our uphill battles with ease. We give you all the glory and we trust in and fully rely on you today to hear and answer our prayers and God give us patience to wait for your perfect timing!
In Jesus name!
Amen

Simple Abundance by Nina Keegan Owens

I have just returned home from a wonderful vacation in Scotland with my husband and some good friends of ours. We had such a great time doing all of the touristy types of things from touring the richly ancient castle ruins steeped in scottish history, to combing the breath taking beaches along the banks of the frigid North Sea. We have toured through the elegant palaces still in use by the Queen and the Royal family today. There are wonderful cathedrals that were built back in the 1300s with their heaps of embellishments and intricate stained glass.

Of course no trip to Scotland would be complete without golf!!! Tons of golf! Walking around in the quaint little town of St. Andrews presented an amazing perspective on the vast history and how a place like this amazingly simple town could carve out what would become a top past time for people all over the world!! This town made golf!! I was amazed at the many famous people that have graced these beautiful courses and the thousands of historic events that have happened in this gorgeous seaside village over the centuries.

This lovely place, it would appear is the town that time forgot, everything it seems is exactly how it was hundreds of years ago. The hand carved architectures on the buildings are original and not done with the help of modern machinery of any sort. There is no giant Walmart or huge mall at the edge of town, nor is there any signage or billboards obscuring your view of the town's gorgeous cobblestone streets and marvelous stone buildings. There are no parking garages or over passes of any kind.

The Scottish people shop simply and healthily at small individual shops. There are small proprietor shops for produce, butcher shops, bakeries, and cheese shops. There are woolen mills and dress shoppes and repair shops each that has been a generational mainstay for many years. Gone is all the useless packaging, boxes and endless plastic bottles. Walking is the main form of transportation. People bundle up and get outdoors. The scottish live very simply and seem wonderfully happy.

The University of St. Andrews wraps itself through town with the same traditions and buildings that have been used for centuries still standing strong and brilliant in the rich sea air.

You need time; a moment to soak it all up and take it all in. The absolute definition of simple abundance!

We as Americans can get so wrapped up in our stuff. We want convenience at every turn. We are the throw away society. When something breaks we toss it and hurry to buy new. We buy bigger and better. We wait in line for the latest and the greatest. We buy way more than we need or can even use.

(Matthew6:24)
You cannot serve God and money.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in it all and we idolize our "stuff" like cars and phones, computers, money, even the designer name tags on our clothes.

We go after these items like owning them defines us. The more you get the more you want. It is like a bottomless pit. We want and we want! We are it seems, trying to fill a void that only God can fill.

(Luke 12:34)
For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.

God wants our hearts!! Period!! When we can let go of all the complexity of having and taking care of, and maintaining all of our stuff; we can concentrate on that which is really important. We can get overwhelmed and tired from keeping up with the Joneses. We can get sidetracked, and complacent and we eventually leave little remaining time to spend with with our loving creator. The rat race is a terrible thing, it's like a race without a finish line. One we can never get out of nor ever win.
To much stuff, to much to do and overbooked schedules can take over our lives and can become very burdensome. We even over book our children. We overwhelm them with to many activities, they get no down time and get frustrated. When we are doing to much we cannot do all things well. Sooner or later we burn out, run out of steam and we let important things slide. We need to do some sole searching and ask ourselves where our hearts are. We need to take action to let go of some of the things that are bogging us down and simplify our lives. We need to spend more time in the presence of God. When we can nurture our relationships with God and put him at the top of our to do lists, we will begin to make subtle shifts in our hurried days and relax in His comfort and we will regain our our long lost joy.

(Matthew16:26)
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses His soul?

We never want to look back on our lives and realized we've missed it. Life is short, it's fleeting and we need to uncomplicate our lives and enjoy the little things. Take time to smell the roses. Be present in your own life. Participate, don't just go through the motions and crawl into bed at night crossing another day off your list!

Take yourself and the "What about me"? question out of the equation and ask what you can do to serve God and others today. I guarantee that when you do just that you will find unspeakable joy.
I challenge you to simplify your life, take stock of what's important and rethink your goals. Put God at the top of the list and the rest of the list, well....
It won't really matter much any more!!

Heavenly Father,
Help us to simplify our lives today and to slow it down a bit. Help us to redirect our focus on to you and our families. Help us to realize what's important as we weed out the materialism that stifles us and our walks with you!!
Thank you Lord!
In Jesus name!
Amen

Be Yourself...By Nina Keegan Owens

Imagine with me for a moment a beautiful mountain side meadow covered in wildly blooming flowers of every imaginable persuasion. There is a brooding herd of wild horses so unexpectedly rare stopping to drink in the crystal clear stream that had been formed by the pure mountain snows that had so recently melted. These melting rivers of snow create cascading waterfalls as they stream down the cliffs etching out valleys within the mountain's walls. The stream's glassy, mirror like, finish reflects the glorious magesty of mother nature's hand standing so statuesquely above its banks. The day is crisp and has a chill in the sweet air. With a unique clarity you can see the dew drops teetering on their host blades of bright green grass. The sky is vibrant and brilliantly colored . The earth it seems is a hollographic reflection of pristine beauty. The day is astoundingly perfect and breath taking in its splendor. It is beyond the likes of any day we have ever seen before.

Now if I were to ask you all to sit down with a sketch pad, pencils, paints, and colorful markers and requested you each draw how you saw that scene in your mind as you read the words, what would your drawing look like? Were your mountains rocky, covered in pine trees, or topped with snow? What colors and varieties were all of the wild flowers? The horses, how many did you see and what colors were they? How did you picture the stream, the meadow, and the waterfalls? Did you visualize a sunny sky, or a bright blue one dotted with clouds?

If we all were to hang our drawings side by side in a beautiful art gallery, we would see that no two would ever be alike. Not even close! Even though we all are drawing the same exact scene, our minds think so differently. Every drawing would be so highly individualized. Some may be very abstract, colorful and left to our own interpretations. Others like a perfect photograph crafted from the depths of our minds. Our visions are all so unique. We are absolutely incapable of seeing, thinking, learning, visualizing and creating something exactly like someone else.


God has made us all to be unparalleled individuals. The Bible says that He has drawn each of us, we are His art work. We are one of a kind, individuals, we all have certain talents and gifts that we share with no other soul on this planet.

Jeremiah 31:3
The Lord appeared to us saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness."

If we can grasp the concept that we are not ever meant to be just like someone else, that it is a complete impossibility, we can stop comparing ourselves to others and stop wishing we could be different. We are always looking over our shoulders to see how we measure up to the next person in line. We beat ourselves up in our comparison processes. We seem to go through a mental check list to see where we fit in, or where we don't. We are always trying to stack the deck in our favor by mentally inflating our attributes. We rationalize our inferiorities and insecurities in our minds. We spend so much time trying to be something were not that we miss out on being the fearfully and wonderfully made human beings that God designed us to be. When we constantly compare ourselves to others and give in to our secret qualms, we are basically telling God that he did not do a good enough job with us. He must have screwed up somewhere right? I have even heard people say that they must have been in the back of the line when God was doling out the talents.

We have our long, on going lists of changes we'd make if only we could. Wouldn't it just be great to be prettier, smarter, thinner, taller, more outgoing, happier, more content in our lives? We think of all the possibilities. What you do not realize is that many others are looking up to you and are envious of your many wonderful qualities too. We can even be envious of someone else's level of faith. We often wish that we had that same kind of relationship with the Lord.

Not one of us will ever pray the same or have the same walk with God as those people we hold in such high reguard. The fact of the matter is, God does not love them any more than He loves you. We are never going to be just like every one else in any arena except in the arena of God's infinite love for us all. God reaches us all differently but loves us the same. We are called to worship Him through His grace and His glory not our own.

Having a negative attitude and an insecure way of thinking will stifle your abilities. Not embracing all the wonderful attributes you do have, will prevent you from becoming all that God made you to be. We simply step over rocks to pick up stones. Metaphorically speaking, we try so hard to be like someone else or to get what someone else has that we overlook and never see the full benefits of all the amazing attributes we ourselves possess.

For those of us that are parents, we often marvel at how completely different each of our children are even though they are growing up in the exact same environment. The reason is simple, they are who God has made them to be. No two alike! We need to embrace our individuality and run with it. When we can learn to love ourselves 100% completely and wholely, good and bad, we will be amazed at the favor of God that will present itself in our lives. The shift in blessings and opportunities that will be awarded you when you start being yourself will be astounding.

We are after all created in God's very image. The scriptures say that He has prepared good works for each of us to do, and to walk in. We have a purpose, a talent, a mind and a soul that cannot be duplicated ever!

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It's time to stand up and be proud of who you are. Others can like you or not, we don't all have to click with everyone all the time. We only need to do what we are meant to do for God and Him alone. You have every right to think the way you think, to feel the way you feel. Be who you are meant to be. You are a complete package all tied up with God's securely woven ribbons, and sealed with His mighty stamp of approval. You can make your own decisions and your own mistakes. You get to follow your own dreams and not some dream some one else decided you should have. You are exactly who you are for reasons and purposes that only God knows. If we knew what God knows, we would never change a thing! So go paint that picture in your mind exactly how you see it! Your drawing will be a perfect creation. You should never feel like less of a person because you dont fit into someone else's box ... You can just get a bigger and better box!

Psalm139
O LORD, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, LORD.
You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!
I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
Even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!


Thank you Father that you made me so unique and with a wonderful purpose in mind! I pray that I can be filled with your grace to follow the path you have designed for me. Thank you!! In Jesus name..
Amen