Worship Always {Janelle’s Story and a GIVEAWAY!!}

I’ve shared her handiwork here before –the story of the one I wear proudly. But what I haven’t shared with you is how amazing the artist behind it really is. How she radiates her Savior with amazing grace.

Friends, I’d like you to meet Janelle. And hear her worship song.
PLUS, she’s offered to give away one of her pieces of art! Details will follow.

Janelle, I’m honored to have you here. Please, sing your song:

The phone rang loudly, springing me from my restful sleep, the last restful sleep I’d get for years. My husband handed me the phone with a forlorn look on his face. This can’t be good, I thought to myself. I was right. It was the absolute worst news anybody could think of; my brother was on the run for a crime that would eventually land him in prison for life.

For. Life.

Worship always.

Several months after my brother’s crime, my mother attempted suicide. I was 6 months pregnant with my second son when my step-dad called with the news. Walking into ICU I could hardly catch my breath, she looked dead. Hooked up to all kinds of tubes and machines, she could have been dead for all I knew. The doctors gave us little hope. She beat the odds.

She survived.

Worship Always.

While pregnant with my third son, I became seriously ill. I ended up in the ER a few times, and knew in my spirit that whatever was affecting me would affect my growing baby, so I prayed… a lot. He was born apparently healthy. And my own health seemed to get a little better after giving birth. One year later my doctor’s last resort was the Mayo Clinic. She’d run all the tests she could. She sent me to all the specialists she could think of. Nothing was showing up.

I remembered the tick that had bitten me during my pregnancy and asked one simple question: can you please test me for Lyme disease? The test came back positive. An active infection had been inside my body for two long years before being diagnosed. I was in very poor health. Treatment would make symptoms even worse. I would be told by my doctor that I might recover completely, and I might not.

Chronic Lyme disease is very difficult to cure.

Worship Always.

One year after my diagnosis, my youngest son, whom I was pregnant with while unknowingly infected with Lyme disease, began to get sick. His personality changed and grew fatigued. I just knew it was Lyme disease. I got him tested and braced for the results. They came back positive for an active Lyme disease infection. My sweet son had been infected while growing inside my womb, where he should have been the safest; he was actually being attacked by bacteria.

It was a very hard day.

Worship Always.

The thing about life is you never get a free pass. You aren’t exempt from bad things happening in your life just because you’re a good person, or a Christian. Trials will happen but it’s how you handle them that will determine your healing. I choose to worship always. I choose to rejoice in the storm.

I choose joy.

These are some of my favorite phrases I stamp on my jewelry because they reflect the desire in my heart. I don’t always get it right. Some days I am lost in sorrow and despair but more often than not I rejoice in the storm, knowing God didn’t bring me to it, but He will bring me through it.

My brother and I are closer than ever. We talk nearly every day. We write each other often. I see him as much as I can. He’s taught me the true meaning of grace, of unmerited favor, of how to honestly love and honestly forgive and honestly see somebody for who they are and not what they have done. I love him like Jesus loves him.

My mother is a miracle. She had no lasting damage from the suicide attempt. She is alive and breathing when she should be dead. She was there to watch my son be born. And watching my step-dad’s faith for her miraculous healing inspired my own faith for healing when my son and I would end up sick years later.

Lyme disease has taught me that sickness and disease are evil. Their sole purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus is the life-giver and He gives in abundance. And because God works everything out for the good to those who love Him, I’ve been drawn closer to the heart of God, learned more about Jesus in these few short years than my entire 34 years of life, have been given my purpose in life. I’ve have prayed for countless others and seen their healings manifest, have been gifted amazing visions, and dreams from God, and have experienced my own level of healing and miracles that I rejoice about.

I believe that, even in the worst experiences in life, beauty can be found. Not that God sent the experience so you would experience the beauty in it, but that God can turn around what was meant for our harm, and give us beauty simply because He loves that much.

In all things rejoice, for we serve a mighty God who performs mighty miracles simply because of His mighty love for us.

Janelle writes about grace and healing. She writes about a good God reflected beautifully in the life of Christ.

She writes about a Savior who is also a Healer and shares her own journey to supernatural healing, offering encouragement to those who believe for their healing also.

You may follow her story here:

http://hestillheals.com/
http://www.facebook.com/astoryofgrace
www.etsy.com/shop/gracetags

~~~~~~~~~~
And now for the giveaway!

Janelle has offered to give away one of her original necklaces to one of you! Why don’t you hop on over to her etsy shop and pick one out. Then, share in comments which one is your favorite–if you can choose!

That’s all you need to do to be entered in the drawing!

For extra entries, you may do one or all of the following (each requires an additional comment to let us know you did it):

• Share this giveaway! You pick your media — just click one or all the icons following this post and let us know how you shared. Each share will count as an additional entry.
• Follow Janelle on Facebook HERE.
• Sign up for Janelle’s FREE NEWSLETTER HERE.
• If you follow Simplystriving via Twitter, Facebook, or email (on sidebar), share in a comment {and know I so appreciate you}.

Giveaway will close at midnight, Friday June 21st. Winner will be chosen shortly after, contacted, and will have 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

I’m sorry to all my friends out-of-state, but this giveaway is only applicable to those in the U.S.A.

Didn’t win, or want more than one?
Janelle is offering all Simplystriving readers 35% off!
For a limited time.
Simply use code “striving35″ at checkout.
Seriously, friends, you won’t be sorry — I LOVE mine!

Thanks for sharing your time with us.

I hope you win…but more importantly, I pray you worship always.

Simply striving,

Nikki (and Janelle)

Better Days

We met over virtual nutella cupcakes one very late Thursday eve. It was during a Five Minute Friday (#FMFPARTY) Twitter party and there was an instant bond as I felt her heart seeking His.

We’ve been shedding and sharing our hearts together ever since. And I’m so honored to have her here, sharing with you.

Friends, will you please give Tonya a warm welcome?

Tonya, this space is yours:

I am not sure when I first started to believe it.  When I started to allow the lies to shadow who God had created me to be.  I am not sure when I determined that the only offering He ever requested – me – was not good enough.

How could He want me? I was busted and broken. Wounds open, festering and smelling.  Community had just stabbed at my dreams and the bleeding out was critical. This messy heap, this is not the sort of gift you give to your Creator.  This is not what He would want.  These shattered pieces would be better swept up and tossed away.

And a long-time faith walk of joyous hallelujahs transformed into a deafening silence as day after day I tried to fix what only God could – my broken heart.  Joy was silenced by my inability to bring my very heart to Him – the messy, chaotic way it was.

             “Beautiful the mess we are…”  – Amy Grant

And when I first heard this song I was standing in a merchandise tent at a Christian music festival, the demo earphones covering my ears and tears streaming down my face.

Beautiful?

My mess is beautiful?

That was a beginning, albeit a shaky one.  One that knew more steps backwards than it did forwards – but it was a beginning.

My hoarse and desperate cry – Better than a hallelujah.
My ugly sin stained heart – Better than a hallelujah.
My self-doubt and fears – Better than a hallelujah.
My life, the messy bits too – Better than a hallelujah.

As we give over to the anguish that is our soul, God is listening.  His ear is pressed close to our hearts and He is listening to all of that pain and desperate and fear.  His ear is pressed close because He wants to hear our song.  The one that keeps us moving closer to Him, the one that has us bending knees and beating chests – it’s our song and He wants to hear it – a melody of surrender. 

“We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody.
Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a hallelujah” – Amy Grant

Subscribers, CLICK HERE To listen in to the song below:

You may read the lyrics HERE.

Tonya is the wife of 21 years to one good man and the mother to Mikayla (19) and Dylan (16).  She is learning that even though her and husband are entering their “empty nest” years the beautiful task of mothering is never-ending.  She is grateful that the grace of the Cross covers all of the things that she may have left undone as she prepares her children for the big wide world.  Tonya writes over at Stone to Heart in hopes of having others recognize the beauty of their own story despite life’s circumstances.

How about you, friend? Have you surrendered your beautiful mess? Have you sung your melody of surrender lately? What does your song sound like? We’d love to hear. 

Thanks for sharing your time with us.

Simply striving,

Nikki (and Tonya)

Through and Through {Simple Utterances}

Flickers of light find their way through the waving canvas, kissing my cheek as the breeze brushes the wisps off my brow.

It’s as if He’s right here, loving the very thought of me. And I can barely breathe as I allow Him to look.

My pulse races as I search for words to tell Him how I can’t get enough of Him. For I want to tell Him I’m ready. Whatever commitment He wants from me, I want to give it.

“Lord, I’ll do it. Today.
I’ll do whatever today brings. For You.
Just please, remind me I’m not alone…
You’re here and You’ll never let me go…
…thank You for that…”

Fingers begin writhing as I contemplate how much control I just gave away. And suddenly I realize — my heart has calmed. My burden’s been lifted. New mercies have found me.

Just like He promised.

Some mornings, that’s all the prayer I can utter. I used to have many words to share first thing. Lately, the words are few. Yet the heart-to-heart conversation has never been greater. 

I’m learning to simply invite Him in and ask Him to linger long. So I can love on Him through and through. No matter what today brings.

This song of simple utterances has fit me lately and I want to share it with you. The words are few. It’s the intent and declaration of awareness that take center stage.

Oh how He loves us…through and through.

Through and Through
Will Reagan

I find that I’m safe and warm
In Your loving arms.

You see me, You know me
and You love me, through and through.

Subscribers, you can CLICK HERE to listen to this on Simplystriving, or HERE to listen directly on YouTube.

How about you, friend? What kind of simple utterances have you shared with Him lately? I’d love to hear.

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

On How Fearing the Dark Might Not Be a Bad Thing

The idea of light has followed me around lately. Reaching me in the most obscure and obvious places. And while I try to help my five year-old sort through his own questions of darkness, a part of me wants to teach him what I’m learning now in hopes his journey of life would be more illuminated as a result. Regardless of how the darkness feels.

The other part of me doesn’t want him to know the truth yet…how the darkness is a foreign animal no human could ever tame…

Friends, I’m over at my other home, 5 Minutes for Faith, sorting through this very thing today. I’d love to have you stop by and share your thoughts with me! Simply click on the button below.

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

On How We Should Love to Tell Our Story {Of Blessed Assurance}

I know it so well that with only a few words spoken, I could tell you how the story ends. Or rather begins. A story of how God dug through the layers of sin and found the sinner. How He offered to take His well-worn slate and clean it. Make it new again. Of how God healed his disease, that gripped him tightly, so miraculously that He’ll never get over the power of His blood.

My dad’s story is wrought with grace and he’s not ashamed to show you how — even if he has to reveal how ugly he once was, or still is when sin grabs hold. I must confess, my teenage eyes would roll as he would share his painful addictions with a smile, for I never understood how he could appear proud of his story.

Now, I realize I was focused more on the details and the circumstances that surrounded them…not the moral of the story…the one ravaged with redemption.

I’m not sure when I discovered how powerful our ugliness can be when we claim it proudly. But I see now how the beauty of transparency allows His light to shine brightly. How His grace can pierce through more effectively. How it’s not really my story I’m telling, anyway…

The enemy has tried to belittle me. Convince me there’s not much worth telling. No great climax. No cliffhangers or gripping details. Some days I’ve believed him. But other days, most days lately, I hear my Savior’s echoes of mercy. I am filled with His goodness and become lost in His whispers of love. And I see the truth clearly.

Friends, my story is not about me at all. And I should smile wide when I reveal what He’s done through me. How He’s saved me and invited me in to this scandalous love affair I’m now whole-heartedly involved in.

I’ve seen grace in tangible form and can prove beyond a shadow of doubt: It truly is amazing. Now that’s something not only worth sharing, but worth getting excited about. For no matter how plain or ugly my story may appear, the beauty is always found in the end. Or rather the beginning.

That’s what I’m striving to do here, one post at a time: Share the story He’s given me. And I pray that no matter how much less you think of me, you’ll see Him more clearly through me.

For this is my story. My song. And I’ve seen too much, fallen too hard, been held too tightly not to praise Him through the journey. All the day long.

And on this Music Monday, I’m guessing you know what hymn I’m singing loud. You know it because you have it, too…

I can’t wait to hear your story. I hope you share it with me…

Friends, I just have to share a bit of my friend Kris’ story today, too. I have seen God move through her in ways only miracles can describe. She’s launching her new website today, sharing where God is taking her story. And you are going to want to hear all about it! Plus, she has a plethora of giveaways available (for only a short time) that I’d LOVE for you to win! Stop on by! Simply click on the image below:

How about you, friend? Do you love your story? How are you sharing what He’s done for you? I’d love to hear.

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

My LifeSONG ~ Five Minute Friday

This is the post each week where I
Link arms with others as we write free
Over at Lisa-Jo’s.

For five minutes time.
Without editing or backtracking
On one word alone:

SONG

I stand at the brink, my toe teasing the water’s edge. A bird taunts me to jump like it’s her everyday sonnet and I wonder if they’re born without the worry gene or if they learn it quickly with first flight.

The wind picks up and carries my breath off with it. And I gulp in air as the song of my heart swells within. For I’m not ready to release this tune yet. It doesn’t sound harmonious.

Father, she’s not even in double digits…septic? Really? Oh Jesus, we need You…

“There’s not a prayer I’ve prayed You haven’t heard
Not a tear I’ve shed that You didn’t feel”

My knees begin to buckle and I follow suit. My palms open as I begin to grasp for reality. And as the song that’s been buried in my heart all week rises up, I’m reminded…He’s here.

“I’ll lift my hands — if my hands fail me
I’ll bend my knees — if my knees grow weak
I’ll raise my voice and I’ll sing
I’ll sing — I know that You love me”

The water splashes around my legs, the salt rises to my lips, sparking hope once again.

“Sink or swim I’m divin’ in where the river starts rushin’
Where my hearts start beating
For the rhythms of the testing and the songs of the trials
I will live to cry out to You, sung with hope inside my eyes”

Wind swipes the strands away from my face and suddenly I see Him so clearly. And when He’s in my scope, the music begins to play for this lifesong He’s given me.

Yes, Father, I’ll sing. For You…

STOP.

The lyrics above were taken from this amazing song (Subscribers, CLICK HERE to listen in)

Will Reagan & United Pursuit – Give Me A Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LS4lM_mDEc

Would you like to see what others thought of the prompt?

Would you like to play along?
Join in on the Five Minute Friday Flash Mob!
Simply click on the button below!

How about you, friend? Have you sung your lifesong lately? I’d love to hear. And would you please pray for Lanie and her family? They need to feel His healing hands…

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

No Buts About It {How My Prayers Have Changed Pt. 2}

This is the second post in my James Prayer series — on how my prayers have changed. You may read the first post HERE.

My elbows dug into my knees, palms firmly planted on my chin. And I rocked slowly, trying to soothe my pounding chest as I searched for words. I have no idea how much time fled as I started over and over, determined to get it right…I realized then I was doing exactly what the verses warned me about. Finally, I relented and told Him outright:

Lord, I don’t even know how to pray…I know how to praise and thank You, but I don’t know how to bring my worries to You. Because they seem to bubble with doubt…

It stung as it rolled off my tongue. I’ve considered myself a prayer for years, with prayer journals to prove it. And here I sat on this moonless night realizing I’ve completely lost my way, drifting off to sea.

I’d become a “But Christian”.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
James 1:5-8

For how many times have I said

“Lord, please heal _____, but if it’s not Your will…”
“Father, help me _____, but if You have other plans…”

Oh mylanta, I’m as wishy-washy as they come. How can He even look at me let alone listen…

I opened my Bible, hoping I missed something. Where does it say how to believe firmly when you know not every prayer gets answered with hoped-for results? How do you decipher between needs and wants? Do I admit how big of a deal these things are to me when in the grand scheme of grace, they are so very small?

Then I saw it…how I’ve been complicating prayer all these years. How I’ve tried to act double-minded, like I can read His mind, how I’ve presented pleas instead of just presenting myself.

• I’ve asked for solutions and not answers.
• I’ve treated Him like a taskmaster — focusing more on the gifts than the Giver.
• I’ve acted as if I know better…and then tried to cover it up with a ‘but’…

James shows us how to get our buts out-of-the-way. What to ask when we’re deep in need: Wisdom. Ask for His wisdom. Every time.

And he even promises…God gives that out generously to all (vs. 5). I have no reason to doubt His will in this regard.

Solomon knew it–all one really needs to get through this world that’s not our home is wisdom. Intimate life-knowledge. And He is the Bread of Life. He is the source of wisdom we all seek. He is all we need.

If I want to gain life-knowledge, I need to know the One Who Is…I need to see Him.

Doubt holds no weight when all we seek is to know Him. When all we ask for is what He’s promised to always freely give.

So when trouble comes and I’m grasping for a way out, I can pray:

“Father, I’m sinking, yet You’ve never let me go… Here, You take this ____. Give me wisdom, Lord, so I can see You and know You’ve got this. Show me how You want me to respond. For I know and believe fully–You are all I need.”

When cancer/illness plagues someone who owns a piece of my heart, I can pray:

“God, You are bigger than this cancer cell. Let us see You, Lord, right here right now. Rest Your healing hands upon ___ and overwhelm them with Your comfort. Peace. Gives us eyes of wisdom, Father, so we can watch Your glory unfold and know You’ve got us in the palm of Your hand. We’re right where we need to be.”

I go through my prayer list and put it to practice as I seek this intimate life-knowledge He freely gives. And smile wide as I realize…there are no buts about it.

My back straightens as I pick up pace. My shoulders relax as I chat easily with my Creator. And for the first time in my tenure of claiming His name, I can pray with confidence and know He’s heard me when I call.

How about you, friend? Do you ask for wisdom when you pray? How do you tackle those areas we so desperately want to go a certain way? I’d love to hear.

P.S. I’m just getting started with what I’ve learned from the Book of James lately. I hope you’ll stick around. You can catch up on other posts HERE.

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki