Count your blessings! End of year review

If you are like me and most Christians, you've probably heard the phrase "count your blessings" and even name them one by one. So, as I thought of a post title, that came to mind. It is the end of the year and 2016 went by quickly and tomorrow will begin a New Year. Most of us use this as a time to reflect on our past year and make New Year's resolutions for the upcoming year.

So what exactly is a New Year's resolution? According to the Wikipedia, "A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior."

I don't know about you, it seems like my resolution every year is usually the same: 

1. I want to eat more vegetables and fruits
2. I want to work out
3. I want to save and become financially stable......

... and the list continues. So instead of making the same resolution over and over again, lets count all of our blessings from 2016, and pray that 2017 will be filled with joy, laughter, goodness and mercy. 

If I can be honest with you, the Lord has definitely stretched me and took me through more than I bargained for. So as we count our blessings, how about we add in our trials too, because we all know it is through our testing we are stretched. In 2016, my husband and I began our ministry, we started Ladies let's pray and DFC ministries, our desire was to share the gospel and what we had learned to others.

 We were living in beautiful Malibu California, enjoying the beautiful weather and beaches. We truly enjoyed living there. But you will be surprise to know that we spent the majority of our time in the word of God and learning as mush as we could. But I must say, it was truly a blessing and a privilege we had living there for 2 years.

  In June 2016, Brian and I had our officially wedding celebration with our friends and family, and yes! it was a highlight for our year. 

 For those that don't know, the Lord called us to California 2 years ago to begin a new journey and literally changed our lives. Before moving to California, we were spiritually immature and knew nothing about the word of God. We were like most Christians, following the dogmatic "Christianity", which literally means going to church on Sunday and going about our own affairs during the week. Mixing the world with a little bit of church. When we moved to California, the Lord began teaching us the true word of God and yes, it was indeed without a church building. The same Bible the preacher uses to preach is also available to anyone of us to read. So we began reading and as we read our eyes became more open to the true knowledge of Christ. We dedicated an entire 2 years in California as the Lord began to transform and change everything we had previously knew. We were separated from the rest of the world, from our family, from our friends. We also experienced and met a lot of people in California that were into the spirituality of darkness, and we found it fascinating that the Lord gave us discernment against those people and their practices. If I can give anyone motherly advice, whenever you visit a foreign land, take your Bible, pray and read it. The Lord surely protected us from a lot of headache out there. My husband calls our time in Cali, "Spiritual bootcamp". So fast forward 2 years later, almost to a tee, the Lord gave us a vision and wisdom to move back to Virginia. Within a few weeks we packed up our bags and left California. We are now back home with family and currently living in my in-laws estate and by the grace of God, we are hoping to build our home on the property soon.

Most of you also came to my blog this year, from my Ladies let's pray prayers and also my monthly Bible study. My passion is to encourage young women in the faith and to help women mature in Christ. My prayers are that you've been encouraged by the prayers and the studies. We finished our last study for this year in November in the book of James. I took a break from writing prayers and the monthly studies, because I had some challenges. The Lord began challenging me spiritually and biblical, because a lot of the things I thought I knew about the word of God began to change and expand. I was first challenged to get rid of my NLT Bible, and other translation and stick to a King James version. I realized some of the translations in those Bible's were contradictory to the true original transcript. I was also convicted that most of the preaching we hear today in our modern churches are completely deceiving people into destruction. I will elaborate on my next post. 

My plan for the upcoming year is to go deep in the word of God for those that are up for the challenge. I will begin posting on YouTube as well. For anyone that currently follows me please be encouraged and the Lord will surely provide you with the strength to grow and mature in Him. 

With love, always 

JoyfullyOsato. 

Praising God through the hard times

Praise God even through the hard times.

Do know this verse?

Matthew 6:26 "Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?"

I am reminded of that verse whenever fear and anxiety creeps up on me. Even the most faith-filled people still experience fear and anxiety. Look at Peter, he walked directly with Jesus, loved Jesus, experienced Jesus’ direct miracles, but yet he was said to have denied knowing Jesus. We can easily praise God when everything seems to be going well for us. We are driving around in our Mercedes, our mortgage is paid for the month, we have a new Chanel bag and all these materialistic things that can sometimes define us. Our job seems secure and we have health insurance and all the benefits available, life seems so peachy.

What happens when those things are taken away from you?

Do you know this verse?

Matthew 19:21 Jesus told him, " If you wish to be complete, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

 Things begin to turn for the worst, your company lays you off, they’ve decided to down size or hire another person for your position. Your car gets repossessed, you are running short on available cash to even pay your rent and put groceries in your kitchen. You begin to wonder, well, God what have I done to deserve this? I was faithful at church, I praised you, I worshiped. Why me?

Soon enough you get angry, you can’t find a job because no one is hiring you and you refuse to get a job at McDonald's. You question God and his existence, you begin to resent God, and then suddenly you have no motivation to even wake up from your bed. You start drowning yourself on social media and everyone else’s life. You are watching reality TV shows and all the terrors on the news. Your life has suddenly turned to hopelessness. You stop praising or worshiping and give up all together.

SISTER, SCREAM IT RIGHT NOW “ENOUGH!”

Your intentions are extremely important.

Ask yourself this question:

Were you praising God for what you can get out of Him?

It’s time for a reality check! Your life needs reexamination.

Do you know this verse?

Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

It’s time to sell all your things and follow Him. When our intentions all along has been for our own self-glorification, we completely miss the point of following Jesus. You’ve placed material objects before God, you’ve placed your job before God. You've been a lukewarm Christian. God doesn’t want you to half way praise him, to only praise him when he is acting right. You’ve placed him in a kennel like a dog and brought him out for a walks when you felt like it. We are to put God before everything in our lives. We are to desire him at all cost.

Do you know this verse?

James 1:2, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds”.

When your faith is being tested, you will face many trails and obstacles, this is the ultimate time to begin to declare your victory. Your faith is an extreme factor when walking with Christ. This is the division battle, the ultimate strategy that separates the sheep from the goats. Are you totally in for Jesus no matter what your circumstances are? Are you ready to worship him fully without restrictions? Are you willing to leave the world behind and follow Christ? Even if you lose everything you own today, will you still follow Christ?

Believe me it is a huge responsibility to follow Him, but the reward is greater. I don’t know about you, but I certainly do not want to be the girl that was rejected at the doorway to heaven because I cared more about my Mercedes and Chanel than Jesus. These things are so temporary, they bring only satisfaction for a short period of time and if you are miserable, it will not fix your misery. But GOD will and we must submit to him in everything, by trusting him. Even when we are losing everything, we need to praise him more. Count it all joy, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Don’t get so attached to this materialistic world and lose your salvation. This is exactly the enemy’s strategy against us, to lure us into the pretty superficial things in the world and we lose focus on God.

You can do this! And yes you will!

Do you know this verse?

  HEBREW 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.

So yes! You need to scream out loud right now “ENOUGH!” Get out of that bed you are laying on and wash your face and clean yourself up. Thank God for His love and grace. He will surely provide. Begin to believe and have faith that God will take you out of this mess and surely your mess will be your victory. When we place our faith in Him, and seek him diligently, we send a message to the enemy that our God will surely provide and we are not afraid of the illusions placed in front of us. We reject the circumstance of lack and begin to declare the word of God upon our life. We know that our God will never leave us or forsake us. We praise him more, worship him and desire a closer relationship with him.

Whatever you are going through today, remember that God is on your side. He makes all things work for the better for those who love and seek him. Do you know Jesus?

Pray this prayer:

Father in the name of Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. I make You my Lord and personal savior. I repent of my sins and I forgive those who have hurt me in my past. I want to know you more. Teach me your ways and make me new again. In Jesus’ name amen

P.S: I love you guys and I’m believing God for a miracle and breakthrough in your life.

You may read my prayer on fear and anxiety here

You may register for the 1^st annual Ladies Let’s Pray conference here

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Enjoy