Meet Tara

I woke up this morning with these words coming out of my mouth. “Up from the grave He arose.”
But they continued…
“With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.
He arose a VICTOR from the dark domain
And He lives FOREVER…”
These words are from a song written by Robert Lowry.
But my heart claimed them aa my own upon waking.
The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus came that we may have LIFE friends!
I don’t know the things you may find yourself wrestling with in your everyday life.
I don’t know the wilderness season you may find yourself in or the grief that may feel like is breaking your heart.
But I do know this good news is bigger than a day!
It was for yesterday, today and tomorrow.
It will carry you when you feel weary and hide you in the shadow of the Almighty as you wait for deliverance.
The good news that Jesus came, He died and He rose from the dead is for EVERYONE!
It’s for you beloved.
John 14:1 (ESV)
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.“
Psalm 9:10 (ESV)
“And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.“ ...

I’ve been asking the Lord for more.
I’m realizing I need Him more than I’ve reached for Him in the past.
What I mean by that is, of course we need Him to save us, friends.
But, He didn’t just sacrifice His life for ours and stop there.

Psalm 139 says He is intimately acquainted with all our ways.

When my husband went to heaven and the fog of constant grief started lifting, I began to see how very much alone I was..

Who would help me make all the decisions I was used to making with a partner?
The ones, we take for granted like; What’s for dinner?
What color should we paint the house?
Is it time to replace the water heater or should we wait?
And the bigger ones like how should I handle a conflict with my child or is it time to sell the house?
It only took a few weeks before I had decision fatigue.😰
Then one day out of frustration, I said, Lord, since he’s not here, I need you to do all these things….And you know what?
He did.
As I waited on Him, he answered.
I began asking him to be everything: my counselor, my friend, my physician, everything.
So, it was no surprise to me after one particularly stressful week, I came across this verse in my reading.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statues of the Lord are trustworthy making wise the simple.”
Ps. 19: 7(NKJV)

There He was again, giving me the perfect prescription for a dry, weary soul crying out for direction.

What do you need the Lord to do for you beloved?

Ask and he will answer. Seek and you will find.

Tag a friend who needs to remember that He wants to be our Everything!
#liftupyoureyes #seekandsavorpodcast #heiswithus ...

There’s a lot of things grasping for our attention,
Situations and circumstances that would draw our hearts away from the one who brings LIFE.
Proverbs 4 speaks a good word for us beloved. It reminds us to….

Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.

Setting our gaze on the right thing is the difference between overcoming or being overcome.
In Peter’s situation it was the difference between walking on water and sinking into it.
I know it can feel SO very hard but today, right now, what if you just “lifted your eyes?”
What if you took them off that THING and put them on your great God?
I promise you, Jesus makes everything look smaller.
And He will sit with you in the midst of it all.
#seekandsavorpodcast #hopeforthefuture #changeyourperspective #renewyourmind #wordofgodspeak ...

We set our minds on many things.
Some of them are good and some of them just further distract us from the very present battles waging war against our souls.
I was thinking about how to handle those battles one day so I returned to The Word.
And here is what happened….
“The TRUTH of the Word was doing something inside me.
It was bringing life to my bones. It was waking up parts of my heart that were asleep.
Perhaps dear ones, if we truly saw the WAR going on in the spirit world we would quake in fear. We might even feel overcome.
But I believe God has chosen us to live in this time period for a reason.
I believe the enemy wants us to SLEEP but our God who is rich in mercy is saying WAKE UP beloved.
WAKE UP.
Put on the full armor of God.
The BATTLE IS AT HAND.
And so we get to choose.
Comment Yes,
if you want the link to one of the most listened to episodes of the podcast: The Year of No Fear. #liftupyoureyes #thebattlebelongstothelord #fixyourgaze #fightthegoodfight #wordofgodspeak ...

I am trying to remember to press in.
I want to be in tune with His voice not just when I am desperate and in times of deep suffering. But also when the sun is shining, my to-do list is long and all is right in my world that day.
Commune means: To converse or talk with profound intensity or intimacy. I have not mastered it, but I long for it to become second nature, this walking and talking with God.
No more boxes of time that he must fit in!
Morning devotions, Bible Studies and church, yes, but also doing the laundry, taking a walk, driving in my car.
When you walk in relationship with someone beloved there is a back and forth a giving and receiving.

Paul said that he had NOT YET attained to knowing Christ as he ought, but he pressed on toward that goal. Phil, 3:8
I want to know Christ and I want to be sensitive to His voice. Imagine a world where we listened more and talked less.
What are some ways you make time for the Father to speak to your heart?
#hisstillsmallvoice #leanin #soulfuel #hopeforthefuture ...

10 years ago we spent our spring break at the beach.
Alan’s body had just been buried but I knew he was fully ALIVE.
2 years after that I penned words sharing what the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart that day.
The truth of them is still breathing life into me today.I find myself growing in the fertile soil of them.
I pray they will breath life into you as well, no matter where your heart is challenged in believing today.

“Yesterday as I worshipped I felt Christ brushing past the rubble in my broken heart. In some ways the pain of Alan’s absence can feel fresh all over again. It’s on those days I’m made aware again of how life doesn’t look like I thought it would.
The shock has gone. The flashbacks of painful days are fewer and fewer.
Yet, I often found myself kneeling in a graveyard of broken dreams, unable to find a vision for the future. As I would walk about seeing others grow old together, I would wonder what that would have looked like and sometimes the new dreams God was giving me felt too BIG or far away. But God…

I felt the Spirit whisper to my heart, ‘The graveyard is the perfect place beloved. I am not daunted by death. No, I conquered it. In fact, you must know something… I Still Move Stones.’
Cue the tears friends. He still moves stones!

Have you ever heard more beautiful words? I can hardly think of any.

Mark 16:4 says, “ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.” That great big stone that covered the tomb where they lay our Lord’s body had been moved. He came to conquer death.
Then He tells us in Romans 8: 11, “ The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.” At work in us? How is that possible?
He is in the business of moving stones.
The resurrected one wants to resurrect our hearts.
He wants to conquer death on our behalf . Not just once when our earthly flesh fades, but every day! He longs to take the stones of brokenness, sin , heartache and death from our hearts.
He wants to move the rubble out of our paths so we can LIVE resurrected lives.
Because He lives, we can too.❤️#seekandsavorpodcast #christinus #liftupyoureyes #sundayiscoming ...