by Laney Rene | Jan 22, 2018 | Life Advice |
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9
“God, my hope and my strength. My ability to move and breathe. My peace. My way. My life. You are my wisdom and my direction. You are my joy and the source of all my strength. You satisfy my soul. I love you Jesus. Thank you for how you love me.”
I wrote these words in my journal, when I quite honestly didn’t feel any of these things. I felt like I had lost hope and had no strength. And from that place, I didn’t want to move and I even felt like I could breathe. Peace felt a million miles away, and finding it felt impossible. My joy wasn’t there because I wasn’t setting my heart on WHO joy is, and therefore, my soul continued to be in want and unsatisfied. I had forgotten that the whole reason I’m able to love HIM, is because He FIRST loved me.
But one day, instead of opening my journal and writing out all my feelings and emotions and blah, blah, blah… I decided I would change it up a bit, and began to write the opposite of what I was feeling. I chose to believe that even though I didn’t see or feel it yet, HE was my hope and my strength. He is my ability to move and breathe. He is my peace, and he never leaves…so peace hadn’t left me. The joy of Him is my strength, so If I set my heart on who He was, I would be filled with the strength that I needed. I reminded myself that more than anything, I’M LOVED BY HIM. Wherever I was believing lies or had a negative thought or emotion, I covered it with His truth and with His love.
THIS is TRUTH.
1 John 3:1 Says,
“Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.”
I want you take note of the word “bestowed” here… Bestow means to present as a gift, to give, or to put on. That means that whether I realize it or not, as a child of God my Father has given me His love as a gift. He has placed His love upon me. I can never change this truth, its truth whether I believe and receive it for myself or not.
If you’re anything like me, you can have a tendency to overthink things, and replay situations in your head over and over again. This can be a very bad thing, or it can be a very good thing. It all depends on what I’m focusing on, thinking about and replaying. Are the thoughts in my head truth? Are they bringing me life and peace? Or, are they lies—bringing me discouragement and confusion?
TRUTH says, “Where the spirit of The Lord is, there is FREEDOM” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
If you’ve felt discouraged lately, or even have a sense of disappointment, I want to encourage you to take some time and ask yourself what it is lately that you’ve been focusing on and replaying in your head. My mom always says, “What is it you’re listening to?” Meaning, are you listening to His voice of truth, peace and life, or are you listening to thoughts of disappointment, fear, and ultimately, death. We live in a world where we’re CONSTANTLY being faced with things that could seem true, but are not true. So, we have to CONSTANTLY cover ourselves with what we KNOW is true, and that is only found in His word.
I want to encourage you to make covering yourself with truth a part of your daily routine. Sometimes, it’s something as simple as getting ready in the morning and as you’re getting dressed or putting on your makeup, just thanking him for how He loves you. When you set your mind on His truth, it will not only begin to change your feelings and emotions, but it will change your relationships and your whole perspective on life. You will begin to see Him in everything and every moment.
by Laney Rene | Dec 6, 2017 | Life Advice |
This is for all the good girls (or boys) out there, who have ever thought they were truly good because they had “been good”. You’ve lived your life keeping almost, if not “all” of the rules.
You were always the “good kid”, and watched everyone else around you make the dumb decisions you decided you’d never make. Have you ever looked at someone and thought “wow, that’s crazy that they did that! How could they? I could never…”
Or maybe, you’re someone who feels like you ARE the bad kid. You’ve broken all the rules and made all of the “dumb” decisions. You feel like you’re the one that no one should ever want to be like, and you could never be good enough or worthy of what it is you truly long for in life – and ultimately, what you were created to be.
Isn’t it funny how we rate ourselves and rate other people? Or even how we rate sin? We hear someone’s story of their past or even just look at their instagram page, and we’ve already decided if we’re better or worse than them. Prettier or not as pretty. More successful or less successful. More liked or less liked – all based on how many followers or likes they have. Constantly comparing and rating each other. This process of comparison either leaves us feeling better than someone else in a way that is false, or feeling less than someone else that is FALSE. Both are false. And both are very deceiving.
To be honest, the girl I described at the very beginning was me until I was about 18. I thought I was pretty good, and without even realizing it I started to find my worth in how “good” I had been, and all the ways I had “saved myself for my future husband.”
But, this thinking was forced to change one day when I was talking to my mom about something a friend of mine had done in the past. My mom saw the way it was affecting me, and heard me talk about how hard it was to believe they had “done that”. She said, “Laney, your righteousness is no greater than hers. She has been made just as white as snow as you have. You are no better… it’s the same blood”.
Honestly, for someone who had felt like they’d kept most of the rules and been pretty good all their life, it felt like quite the confidence killer. But the truth is, over time my confidence had become what I had done, instead of what He had done.
Romans 3:23-26 says:
“For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
When Jesus died, shedding His blood for all, His word says that He washed us white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). We are covered by His blood and His blood covers all. It doesn’t matter if you think you’ve been the best or you think you’ve been the absolute worst. We ALL need HIM the same. Don’t let your past be baggage you carry around – full of shame and defeat, or think that your “goodness” is a badge for purity and what qualifies you for His favor. Nothing you have ever done or could ever do could ever qualify you or disqualify you for your destiny.
Righteousness cannot be earned, it can only be received. Come to Him and leave your bags at the door. Because as far as He is concerned, your baggage was checked in at the cross and LOST to never be found again.
by Laney Rene | Nov 15, 2017 | Life Advice, Relationships |
“What’s your name?”
“Who are you?”
“What do you do?”
These are probably three of the most asked questions in our culture and our generation.
They’re the go-to questions when you’re getting to know somebody. The sad part is, often our answers get mixed up with the questions being asked. We answer the “who are you?” question with the “what do you do?” answer.
To be honest, this has been a CRAAAAZY year for me. I would say some good and some bad – but because of where I’m at now, and God’s continual faithfulness, I can now say it was ALL good because He uses EVERYTHING for our good. (Romans 8:28)
This year came with a lot of changes and a lot of letting go of what I knew, and what had been my “world” for the last few years. I found myself asking God the question, “what do I do?” A lot. Not just in small situations, but in big picture too.
Jesus what do you want me to do with my life? Now that I’m not doing that, what do you want me to DO now? Asking again and again…and again. Finally, one night I heard Jesus say so clearly to me, “Laney, I’m not concerned about what you do, I just want you to know who you are… and out of knowing that, then you will know what to do.”
Throughout my life and still to this day, I like to do a lot of different things. Sometimes I’m backup dancing, sometimes I’m styling or re-making clothes. Sometimes I’m singing, sometimes I’m doing who knows what, to be honest. Probably something ridiculous that one day I will regret posting on social media! But hey, yolo! Right?!
I’ve also been a nanny, and I’ve worked at Chick-Fil-A…but none of those things told me who I was. Shoot, if that were the case id be exhausted by now! Trying to be all those different people.
So, instead of asking God “what do you want me to do?”, I began asking Him to remind me of who I am. The Lord reminded me of a video my mom found recently of me from when I was a little girl. In the video, I pick up the mic from our little Karaoke machine and I said “I (long pause) love (long pause) Jesus”.
I felt like He took me back to when I was a little girl, to remind me that I was a daughter. Before I was old enough to have any kind of job title or social status. Before I walked through a painful season, or won or lost or succeeded or failed. Before all of life had happened, I was HIS. And when I know I’m His, I will freely tell the world I love Him, I’m loved by Him, and I will share what ALL He has done for me.
Not only did this change how I saw myself and my situation, but it changed how I saw other people. I stopped looking at what he or she did or didn’t, does or doesn’t do, and began to look at who they are. A son. A daughter. HIS kid! Sometimes it can be hard to walk in relationship with people once we realize we may not like certain ways they do things, or if we feel like we’ve been wronged by them in some way. But if we see them for who they truly are, and not just what they’ve done or do, we can walk together in real relationship and a genuine love for one another.
Before anything else you’ve ever been, you were His. You are not what you do, or what you’ve done. You are not the model, the dancer, the singer, the actor, the speaker, the brains, the athlete or the muscles that come along with that. Although it’s easy to find temporary confidence in these things because they’re all things the world has a tendency to hold highly and admire, these things will never truly satisfy our soul or fulfill our purpose. Whether we ever acknowledge it or not, our souls long for MORE. To belong. To be accepted. To know who we are, and whose we are.
Life with Jesus is an adventure and it’s a journey. The titles people give you throughout this life will likely change many, many times…. but this truth will never change. You belong. You are accepted. You are child of God. You are HIS!
