Building your Singles Ministry/Personal Growth by Other Authors

I Give Up​ by Michelle Eiegmann

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" Matthew 16:25

I. GIVE. UP. I declared with equal parts of defiance and duress. I have reached my limit and now I am tapping out and throwing in the towel on life. I'm not sure what to do next but he's my resignation...I quit.

I had just laid it all out on the table for God. I told him I was done and then sat in my prayer chair with my arms folded as if attempting to hold my ground and nonverbally communicate the seriousness of my statement.

"Finally," he said. "I've been waiting for you to Give up, now I can move and work and restore and replenish you"

As my heart became flooded with His loving message I soaked it in. I cried and allowed Him to fill me. A physical weight was lifted from my body as I gave up. Often we think of giving up as failing but in Matthew 16:25 Jesus tells us that if we want to receive our keys to the kingdom we need to give up. We need to give up control. We need to give up the sinful acts in our lives. We need to give up faulty thinking. We need to give up dysfunctional patterns. And maybe most importantly, we need to give up the fight. So many times I find myself standing toe to toe with the devil but that's not biblical. Paul instructs us to flee from the enemy not to challenge him to a duel.

We can only find what we are looking for when we stop searching. We gain so much when we give up everything. If we wish to live we need to first die. To be great is to take the role of a servant. Jesus came and flipped everything upside down. He came with a message of love and restoration but the way to the promise is to travel against the grain of the world. In our own strength this is impossible; it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can reach this level of spiritual fitness.So Let's pray this together tonight.

Father, You see me. You know me. Yet you love me. Help me give up tonight. Whatever needs to be set at the foot of the cross, Lord, help me do that. The burdens of life are heavy but your yoke is light. Lord, tonight I'm cashing in on your promise and I'm trading my ashes for beauty. Lord, you once gathered dust and with one breath you created life...do it again. Breathe life into the dry and dead places within me. Bring dry bones to life. Show me great and amazing things. Reveal your mysteries to me tonight. In Jesus name.
JD Greer
Michelle wears an array of hats on any given day but her favorite is Daughter of the King. She lives in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina where she works as a Child and Family Therapist. She has been a single mother for 18 years and loves to watch God take your most difficult struggles and transform them in to passionate purpose. Today Michelle has joyfully embraced her passion to speak truth into the lives of others and assist them in finding and living out their true identity in Christ. She believes that in order to do that we need to uncover the lies and labels, identity the root and replace it with God’s truth. Contact Michelle: meigemann0425@gmail.com

Uprooted by Single Parent Director, Holly Crain

sheep

I never could understand my father's frustration over the beautiful yellow flowers that were sprinkled across the lawn. It seemed that those flowers would pop up overnight! I would pluck them immediately to make my five year old version of "bouquet-of-the-day". Then Dad would just as quickly come behind me to remove the roots. 

Being uprooted can be like that dandelion....pulling and tearing away from the earth can almost sound painful. When we are uprooted, it can be a move to a new home, a change of job or even a break-up. It's an unavoidable part of life and can and usually involves a painful process. 

When those times of uprooting happen, if we are living in God's will, could it be possible that the Lord is doing a new thing? If that is the case, we are not to get in the middle of stopping the process. When He is uprooting, we should wait with patience, fast, pray for affirmation and listen a lot. 

Read Isaiah 43:18-19, 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

The process of uprooting has happened many times and I can only expect that He will continue the uprooting in my life and refine me until I'm done here on earth.

When my life felt like a wilderness and wasteland, I can remember the movement of the Lord because it seemed that everything else had been stripped away. From this perceptive, I see now what the Lord was accomplishing in my life.

When the Lord does a new thing in our lives, there is a great purpose behind it all. He will make a way and give us the refreshment we need as we allow the process. I want to challenge you today to allow the Lord access to uproot the things that are holding you down.  

If we have not met, I walked into this church alone with a 5 year old daughter and a 2 month old son in tow. This church embraced me but bigger than that the gospel and what God did in my life changed this ordinary girl forever! And I know He will do the same for you! He will! Enjoy church, the SPF ministry and this SPF newsletter. Allow yourself to get excited about what God has in store for you and your children.
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If we have not met, I want you to know that I walked into this church 26 years ago with a 5 year old daughter and a 2 month old son in tow. This church embraced me but bigger than that the gospel and what God did in my life changed this ordinary girl forever! And I know He will do the same for you! He will! Enjoy church, the SPF ministry and this SPF newsletter. Allow yourself to get excited about what God has in store for you and your children.
crain
Holly Crain, Single Parent Family Ministry Associate
Holly.Crain@HoustonsFirst.org, O: 713.957.7674, C: 832-247-4787
HoustonsFirst.org ​
Kathy and I have had the pleasure of working with Kris of The Single Network Ministries at several events over the past three years. We always look forward to her insight and creative ways to connect with her audience sharing the Word of God with encouragement, humor and just being real. You will want to catch her for sure the next time she is in your area. Her sense of humor is a hoot and infectious.
—Kathy and Klay Watson,  Dating His Way Ministries

Leadership, General

Single Parenting

Personal Growth