I Choose2 Love My Life
[IChoose2 Love My Life: a one -year journey toward living a life you love]
What better way to start the New Year, than to go on a journey together with my friends, Kelly Thorne Gore and the IBloom team. Recently they invited me to become part of their team as an IBloom Ambassador in spreading the message of living the life you love, to women in my circle of influence.
As a Life Coach, who believes in intentionally taking steps to grow, I decided to join them in this year-long journey of working through each area of my life in this coached JOURNALING process. Yes I said Journaling! That is one of the reasons I love this book so much – it is filled with Journaling Prompts to get you started. And I want to invite you to join me in this adventure, by making it part of your daily time with God; as you seek His direction for your life. Each week you will take a closer look at your life, and be given exercises to help you grow in areas that cover your mind, body and spirit.
And to get you off to a good start we are having an online girls night in IBloom New Years Eve Party, where you will be inspired and equipped to begin living a life you love! Grab a copy of the book iChoose2 to Love My Life for $10 or join without the book. We would LOVE for you to be there!
The team of Life Coaches at IBloom created this step-by-step experience to help you become all that God created to be. Not a book to glean head knowledge – rather, it’s an experience of change. There is one entry per week for an entire year, filled with inspiration, coached questions, journaling exercises and challenges that will cause you to stop, ponder and commit to change for your body, soul, spirit and the environment in which you live in. If you desire to take the next step toward living the life you’ve always wanted, I encourage to start this journey! I have!
I hope you join me,
Debra
Read MoreWait! Don’t Give Up!
… but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. Ps 37:9 (KJV)
I love the word inherit in this verse. In the Hebrew it means, to sense, to take possession of, to possess, and to occupy. The word has a legal sense of invasion for the purpose of taking the territory and settling into it. We can take territory through prayer as we stand on Gods promises.
After standing on the promises of God, are you waiting? Or have you given up? It is so easy to pray and then give up because we do not see the answer right away. If you are waiting in unbelief and hopelessness, than you are not waiting at all. You have given up.
Waiting is not a passive word. Wait in the Hebrew means to expect, to await, look for patiently, to hope, to be confident, to trust and to be enduring.
Let’s take a look at Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isa (KJV)
Those who are waiting are not just sitting around doing nothing. Notice in the above verse, they are filled with new strength and are not weary as they are waiting. They are moving forward, walking, running. They are not standing still.
I like what the Parallel Bible says about this verse. It says that those who are awaiting the fulfillment of His promises shall renew their strength.
Are you waiting? Do not be passive. You must diligently lay hold of your inheritance through believing prayer. Once you pray, begin thanking God for what He is going to do. Begin to expect, and look for the answer patiently, be confident, trust God and be enduring.
Isaiah 64:4 says that the Lord acts in behalf of the one who waits.
~ Debra
Read MoreUprooting Unbelief
One of the first things a Gardener does when planting a garden is test the soil’s condition, removing stones and weeds to ensure that the seed will take root. If weeds aren’t removed, any good seeds planted will not flourish.
One of the most detrimental weeds in a “heart garden” is the weed of unbelief. It enters subtly and slowly strangles your prayers, keeping them from producing Kingdom results.
Vigilance is needed here! Surveying the land of your heart should be done on a regular basis. I have found journaling and prayer to be an effective way to check what is in my heart and to guard it, particularly against those subtle attacks.
Satan’s tactic is to fill your heart with seeds of unbelief because he knows that when the seed of God’s Word is planted and watered with faith – it will grow and produce. So he “suggests” thoughts of worry, hoping you will focus on your circumstances and live in unbelief and hopelessness. Unbelief will choke your prayers and wrap it’s tendrils around you, tripping you up and throwing you off course. Your spirit will be unfruitful as a result, and your faith will waiver.
So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. Hebrews 3:12 (MSG)
Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. James 1:6-8 MSG
Therefore guard your heart from unbelief, and if you find such weeds menacing the garden of your heart – yank them out quickly! Then, plant the seed of God’s Word in its place, watering it daily with your faith.
5 Steps to Uprooting Unbelief:
- Plow up hardened areas of your heart by examining yourself through journaling and prayer.
- Yank out weeds of unbelief and worry that God reveals. Log everything God shows you in your journal and confess them one by one, asking Him to forgive you. Forsake the sin of unbelief and refuse to FOCUS on your problems any longer. Focus instead on God and His plans, His desires, His promises and be renewed and strengthened to weather the storms of your life regardless of the circumstances in which you find yourself.
- Plant scripture promises that relate to areas where you are worrying. Write them in your journal and plant them through prayer. FOCUS on God’s Word!
- Water your promises with your faith daily – thanking God for the answer even before you see it come to pass with your physical eyes. Call things that are not as though they are, “Now, faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Heb. 11:1, NIV)
- Guard your heart and prayer plants from the strangling weeds of unbelief; forewarned is forearmed — do not let the enemy’s tactics gain a foothold, claim God’s promise to you: “no weapon forged against you will prevail,” (Isa. 54:17 (a, NIV)
Watch to see what God will do! Below you will find a few examples of what worrying your prayers looks like and what the prayer of faith looks like.
Prayer Examples Problem: Your teenager is rebellious and drinking.
Worrying Your Prayers: God, I don’t know what we will do. He will never change, he is such a mess, there’s no hope for him. Help us.
Faith Filled Prayer: Lord, thank you for your Word that says you rescue the children of the godly. I am greatly concerned for my son, but I stand on Your Word, which says You gave him a heart to know you and promises he will return to you with all of his heart. Hallelujah!
Tip: You can detect unbelief by looking at how you respond to circumstances or people. Are you worrying about them? Are you filled with fear or anxiety? Are words of unbelief spilling from your mouth? Have you fallen under your circumstances and can’t get up? If so, it is time to check your heart to see if the weed of unbelief is present.
For more information on cultivating your heart, read Mud On My Knees.
Debra Bosacki – The Journaling Coach
Read MoreIs God Stretching You?
Do you get impatient when God is stretching you, wanting to enjoy the harvest NOW?
God knows that you might not be ready yet and so He will slowly stretch you little by little preparing you for the weight of the harvest to come.
Tomato plants need to grow slow and steady or they’ll get “growth cracks”. When weather is dry, excessive watering leads to tomatoes expanding too quickly. When tomato skins don’t have enough time to stretch, they crack to alleviate pressure. If you’re like me, you might want to water excessively in hopes of enjoying them quickly… you know, help them out a little, but in the end the fruit might not be what you expected!
When Joshua was about to enter the Promised Land, God said, “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
God didn’t want Joshua to crack under the weight of his new responsibilities and He doesn’t want you to crack either. So He stretches you little by little until you’re ready.
The next time you see a cracked tomato remember … “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, (do not crack under stress) for the Lord your God is with you where ever you go.”
He is stretching you and the Weight of the Harvest is worth it!
Of lately God has been stretching my faith to believe Him at His Word. How about you?
Journaling will help you grow without cracking under stress.
Journal: In what area of your life is God stretching (growing) you?
The following exercise will help you hear Him more clearly because you are actually slowing down long enough to listen.
Journaling Exercise: Take a close reflective look at your heart and your life.
- How is He stretching your character? Go ahead – write it down!
- Take a moment, listen and write what God reveals.
- If you have been journaling – look over your past journals and record how He has been speaking to you through the Bible, His Spirit, your circumstances, what people say and church. (If you have not been journaling start today and over time you will see God’s fingerprints in your life). God is always at work, growing your character to match the purpose that He has for your life.
Look closely – if you don’t join God in what He is doing, the growth process will take longer.
“Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
Read MoreNeed Wisdom – Journal God’s Movements!
Need Wisdom? Don’t know what to do? Where do you see God’s fingerprints?
Look closely to see where He is moving in your life and join Him.
Prodigal Spouse Seeds
Scripture Prayers for a Wayward Spouse and Protection Over Your Marriage:
Father, I plead the blood of Jesus over my marriage for reconciliation to You. (2 Cor. 5:18)
I lift up my spouse to the Throne of Grace to receive mercy and grace for help in this time of need. (Heb. 4:16)
Turn my spouse’s heart like rivers of water toward Your will. (Pr. 21:1 KJV)
Remove the veil from her/his eyes. Grant her/him repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:4)
In Jesus’ Name and by the power of His blood I declare that the enemy is a defeated foe according to Your Word. (Col. 2:15)
For Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and to open my spouse’s blinded eyes to make her/him see, to open prison doors to set the captive free. (Luke 4:18)
I pray she/he will come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4), for Your Word says that when she/he knows the truth, the truth will set her/him free, and he who the Son sets free, is free indeed! (John 8:36)
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
*Please note these are not direct “quotes,” but prayers based on God’s precious Word.
Print these off and place them in your Bible so you can pray them daily.
Find prayer instructions and the full list of scriptures to pray for your spouse in “Mud on My Knees” prayer journal.
Read MoreGive Your Concerns to God
Were you ever concerned that what you were doing would not turn out?
Recently I felt this way and then the Lord said,
“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 Amplified Bible
What a promise!
Let’s take a closer look at this verse. What does it mean to roll your works upon the Lord? To roll means to commit, to trust them to God.
How does this work? It looks kind of like this prayer,
“Lord I give You this concern, I will not worry about it anymore. I totally want Your will in this situation. I surrender it to You.”
What happens when we do this? According to this verse, when we commit it to God and trust Him with it, He will cause our thoughts to become agreeable to His will, so that our plans will be established. Our plans will take root and they will succeed.
Today, quit worrying that things will not turn out. Give your work, your ministry, your family to God and trust Him completely with them.
Read MoreJournaling What God Speaks
Do you remember everything that God says to you?
If we did, we would treat God’s Word to us as important and write it down? Not only that, we would read it over and over again until we fully understood what He was trying to tell us. We get goose bumps when we know that God has given us a word. Often we share it with others and sometimes we even journal it. But many times we get busy with life and forget over time. We just don’t follow through.
His thoughts toward us are like the sand of the sea! How can we ever contain them all? I have found journaling to be a great way to contain what God speaks to my heart.
How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! [Ps 40:5.] If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You. Ps 139:17-18 AMP
Let’s make this the year we start following through with what God speaks to our heart.
When God speaks it is always with a purpose. I find that when I create a special place for my relationship with God, I view it as sacred. I can’t wait to go there, pick up my journal, hold it in my hands and pray over it, declaring God’s Word over my life and the lives of my loved ones.
I regularly take several hours and have a personal retreat and am amazed at what God reveals to me. Every year I transfer God’s directives to my new journal and continue to add to it. I pray over His directives for my life and determine to walk in obedience to what He tells me to do.
The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.] John 14:21 AMP
Did you hear that? When you hold onto God’s commands and keep them; obeying them, God will reveal, manifest Himself to you. He will let Himself be clearly seen by you and Make Himself real to you!
WOW, I don’t know about you, but I want my relationship with God to be like that! “REAL”
The word “keep” in the above verse, in Greek means to hold fast, to watch, to guard by keeping your eye upon something.
I am committing to guard His words to me, to keeping my eye upon them and holding them fast and walking them out in obedience. I want God to manifest Himself to me in a personal way.
How about you?
Do you want to hear clearly from God? Do you want to see what He is doing in your life? Then take Gods word seriously and obey Him.
~ Debra
Keeping A Heart Journal
I keep a specific journal to guard my heart and check its condition. This journal is a perfect place to write what the Holy Spirit reveals and to work the ground of my heart through prayer, repentance, planting, weeding and watering.
If you don’t know where to start, draw a picture of a heart and write everything that’s filling it, i.e. pain, offenses, joy, concerns, anxieties, worry … be specific. Once you get a glimpse you can take each area to God in written prayer.
Hebrews 3:13 says that our hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. That means if we don’t pay close attention, we can be easily deceived and our hearts will harden. Remember, Satan’s tactic is to steal the seed.
One of the first times I wrote in my heart journal, I was going through a trial, praying God’s promises but also speaking words of unbelief. This is what I saw.
Fear = Unbelief
Complaining = Unbelief
Grumbling = Unbelief
Feelings of Hopelessness = Unbelief
Worry = Unbelief
Anxiety = Unbelief
There it was … the deep rooted sin of unbelief. Did you notice how quickly it spread? If I allowed it to remain, it would choke the promises I was standing on for my circumstances.
Once my sin was revealed I uprooted it with repentance, asking God to forgive me, turning from it by writing out scripture promises and speaking words of faith, praying each one through.
Now it’s time to cultivate your heart! Get out your journal and write what’s in your heart. Plow up the ground and guard it above all else, for it will determine the course of your life.
For more information on cultivating your heart, read Mud On My Knees.
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