Holding On To Hope: A new adventure with Jesus!

If you have read my past blogs, you know that the number one reason I write this blog is to share what God is doing in my life, to share His greatness and hoping that someone will feel encouraged by it. Mostly what I write is what I believe God wants me to share and I feel beyond blessed and humbled that He would use me to show others His love. 

Tracing back from my posts,  you'll know that I started this blog when I surrendered to Jesus and started my walk with Him. I am so happy to say that as of December 2013 I have been walking with Him for a whole year and I look forward to the many years to come! As that first year went by it came with many struggles but oh so many blessings. At the end of the year as I looked back, I saw how every struggle I faced was well worth it. 

Three weeks before the end of last year, and just about a week after my one year anniversary with Jesus, He surprised me and blessed me beyond what I had ever imagined. After 8 years of college, in which I obtained both my bachelors and master's degrees, after countless jobs and fundraisers to pay for college, after long hours studying and making sacrifices, after waiting for a so longed working permit, after many many online applications in search for a job, settling to work at Red Lobster while I kept looking, two career fairs, and almost 15 interviews, I received a job offer, so perfect just as Jesus had promised! 

I write this blog post today as a testimony and witness of what holding on to hope looks like and how perfect God's promises and will is. I have shared about receiving my working permit and finding the freedom that I so longed for in the United States. Yet once obtaining that I began a search of a job to put that permit to work. I decided that I needed to put it to use as soon as possible and God opened the door for me to be a server at Red Lobster. A lot of times people would ask why I was there? How could I be working as a server when I had a master's degree? But I knew the answer to that, and many wouldn't understand. God was preparing me for something greater and He was teaching me to be humble. It didn't matter what title I had, I knew that if I wasn't serving and working for God, then I was doing nothing worthwhile. 

The scriptures that helped me and showed me what God was doing in my life at that time were:

"Whatever you do, work with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man, knowing that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."  - Colossians 3:23-24

Colossians showed me that it didn't matter the title I had or the job I was doing. As long as I was working for the Lord, He was being glorified through me. I held on to His promise of an inheritance more rewarding than anything in this world. 

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." - James 4:10

"And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." -1 Peter 5:4-7

In James and Peter, I learned what it means to let God be the one to make you shine. What it means to leave it all up to Him, to humble yourself so that there is nothing left of you, so that you may be filled with Him and He may shine through you. To be in a state of obedience and service through which He will reward in due time and never leave you. 

After holding on to these scriptures the time came for the career fair at my university. With all the faith I could possibly have, my best suit on and lifted up in prayer by my brothers and sisters in Christ, I knew that I would find something. After a day of talking to 25 companies, there were some who showed interest in me; two of which where in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At that moment I just knew, that was where God was going to send me. Something just moved in my heart that day and I had an "I just knew" moment. Without even having an interview or researching more about these companies, I opened up my computer and googled "baptist churches in Tulsa". I read through some pages and one in particular stood out to me. At that moment is when I was even more convinced that God was directing me to Tulsa. I mean here I was searching for a church way before I even interview or researched what living in Tulsa was like, or even asking myself if that was somewhere I could see myself living.

It turns out that I interviewed for one of the companies in Tulsa. I moved up to the 3rd and final interview and received an offer. Yet my heart was not at peace. Something in my heart told me that that offer was not what God had for me. My prayer team at church agreed and they shared they didn't feel peace about it either. Yet I knew that God was calling me to Tulsa. The other company that was also in Tulsa from the career fair had only offered one interview so far, and deep down in my heart I knew that was a way better opportunity professional wise for me. Yet I did not have an offer from them and the other company was waiting for an answer. It was the first and only offer I had and it was so hard to let go without having something else lined up. Then I realized that that is what faith is all about. Trusting God without knowing how things will work out yet believing that they would. I had to let go of that offer and be stuck at square number one until God moved.

Just a few days after rejecting that offer, I received a phone call from the other company in Tulsa, completing my second interview. A week later they called wanting to fly me to the city for the 3rd and final interview. This is when I knew God had moved. I was scheduled to begin work from the offer I rejected, November 11, same date that I would fly into Tulsa to interview for this other company! That just had to be God, He already knew I would be there on Nov. 11, it was just a matter of time before He revealed it to me! So off I went to interview and the peace I felt on that trip, I cannot describe. Only three hours away my great friend drove down to keep me company. God knew I hadn't traveled much and He made sure I had someone with me to ease my nerves. He couldn't have chosen a more adventurous person as Laura! I know you're reading this :D

It was a very long and challenging interview, I left feeling still so nervous not knowing what had happened. I was asked questions that even with how I had prepared myself, I knew that the only way I was answering the way that I was, was because it had to be God speaking through me. Standing in the office I got interviewed in, I asked God "Is this where you want me? Is this the door you are opening for me?" Well exactly one month later, as they had promised to contact me with a decision, I received a offer and with no hesitation I accepted on the spot! I was overwhelmed beyond what I can explain! It had been the longest month I've experienced, I was just about to give up and I was already looking to find another opportunity. I am so glad that I fought through it and I trusted that if this was God's will, I would get the offer. What amazed me more was at the end of my conversation I told the person who called me that I appreciated the phone call so much, that I had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. He then answered "Good things come to those who wait".

I cannot begin to describe the even more overwhelming way in which God moved the next three weeks into me moving to Tulsa! In just three weeks from only having books and clothes, plus a pretty beat up GMC Safari van, that would not even make it past 100 miles, God provided! He surprised me with the opportunity to purchase a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee in perfect condition to drive 800 miles AND enough monetary support from my best friend for all relocation expenses. But it didn't finish there, day by day, week by week everything came together. All of a sudden my prayer team had given me enough kitchen things to fill up a box and more! Countless friends gifted me presents for the new apartment and when I left for Tulsa, the jeep was so filled with things I could barely look out my rear view mirror. Everything just turned out so perfect, God surprised me with every detail; (which if I describe I will end up writing something close to my thesis research all over again!).

Now that I am in Tulsa, He surprises me everyday! I have been here now for almost 8 months and it is amazing how He keeps moving. Slowly I have made friends and have been introduced to people at church that I know God has a plan for me meeting them, and them meeting me. As I look back and remember my dreams and goals, I am amazed to see how God has made them all true. I dreamed of becoming somebody, I dreamed of an education, I dreamed of defeating the odds of what people thought I would become, I dreamed of being free, I dreamed of being happy. After years of dreaming, God has helped me to turn my dreams into goals and my goals into achievements. From the little girl that always longed to belong and was brought illegally into this country, God has made of me a woman who knows she will always belong to Christ and for the first time in many years, I can do things the right way. It may seem silly to some but this year has just been amazing, I did my taxes for the first time, I started a dreamed job, I have a credit score, I own my own vehicle, and from dreaming with an education, I now hold two degrees. WOW!

I dont mean to write this in any way to boast about myself or to simply tell you how great my life is. I write this as a testimony of what holding on to hope looks like. Holding on to your dreams and goals and believing that one day they will become accomplishments. I also write this to tell you that if it was not because of the hardship God allowed in my life, I would not be the person that I am today and I would not be where I am now. I write this to encourage you to keep believing despite the odds. I write this to give testimony that God will provide for you and in HIS time, He will make your dreams come true if you trust in His will. I write this to share with you what great things God has done for me and I know He can and will do for you too! But don't get me wrong, as "great" as my life may seem right now, I daily have to choose Him. I daily have to pray that this joy and happiness will not overtake me and I will forget who I received it from. I pray that in the midst of happiness, I will be weak so that I may always need Jesus!

So whatever you may be going through right now, I encourage you to keep holding on to hope. Allow God to slowly reveal what He has for you and in due time He will show you why you experienced what you did. I invite you to keep dreaming and keep making goals that with God's help you will achieve. I encourage you to keep trusting so that one day just like me, you will be at a point where you will JUST KNOW you are exactly where God wants you to be. And most of all I encourage you to step out into a new adventure with Jesus! :) 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11

A precious miracle called Noel :)

I am pretty sure that most of us, have at least once wished we could experience a miracle. We all want to experience something amazing and inexplicable. Because after all that's what defines a miracle right? Dictionary.com desceibes a miracle as an event not ascribable to human power. I want to admit that not only have I wished on witnessing a miracle, I have also written it in my "100 things I want to do before I die" list. Today I write this blog, because I am able to say that I have crossed it off my list. I do not know how many people in life will get to say this, but I am blessed to say I have experienced a miracle. 

With this post as I have titled it "A precious miracle called Noel", I want to share about my own experience in the life of a little princess called Noel. Everything around this little girl has impacted my life in ways I never imagined, and it is thanks to her faithful parents and their love for Christ that I was able to experience the miracle that NOEL is.

To give you a long story short, right about the time Noel's parents found out the sex of their baby, they also found out that their precious little girl came with complications. After tests and more test, Noel's parents found the devastating news that their little girl would not have a normal life if she survived after birth. I am not going to try and explain medically what was going on in Noel's little body, but I do understand it was something that was affecting her heart. Doctors gave Noel's parents different alternatives, but they chose the best one they could ever have chosen. They chose to trust God.

Knowing that doctors did not expect Noel to live past birth, her parents chose to place Noel's life in Him who so fearfully and wonderfully made her! Psalm 139:14 quickly became Noel's verse and one that we all who prayed for her had present in our hearts. Noel's parents decided to battle her condition with prayer and I have to say to this day I am amazed at the way people came together for this special little girl. In the midst of all the chaos and heartache the Lord sustained Noel's parents and her entire family through the full 9 months of pregnancy and the next days to come. 

Noel was born and to everyones surprise and the doctors own astonishment, she lived way past birth. Noel beat the odds and lived for 15 days! To you 15 days might seem like a very short time, but for a baby girl who was not supposed to survive after birth, 15 days was a long time. In this 15 days and through the life of Noel, I was able to experience a miracle. The miracle of life and the amazing power of prayer. I cannot begin to describe how overwhelming those 15 days that Noel lived were in my own life and I cannot imagine how those days were for her parents. But one thing I do know is that God was glorified in such a way, so powerfully and beautifully! Through their decision of sharing their story, Noel's parents allowed God to shine through Noel. When you allow for that, great things happen!

In my own personal side of the story, as I shared Noel's story and asked for prayer, I saw people being drawn in. Some drawn to Jesus for the first time and others returning! People were curious to see what would happen with Noel, so they kept up with my updates and through every day that she lived, they felt encouraged. As the faithfulness of her parents was shared, some couldn't help but to want to know what was it that was keeping them so hopeful. It was Jesus! His promises and the way He was shining through Noel was just amazing! So many people came together in the name of Jesus for one little girl and God worked wonders. I had the privilege of being at the hospital when Noel was born and I was amazed at how many people were there. I come from a big mexican family, so for me to say there were a lot of people there, you can just imagine how many! 

I had the privilege to hold Noel in my arms when she was born and I cannot being to describe the amazing feeling that was! So tiny, yet so perfectly made. So delicate and precious yet so strong and courageous! Through her dark brown eyes you could see a shining light and through her gestures you could see and angel's smile. God was shining through Noel in such a powerful way that when I held her I felt His presence. I felt His love, his warmth, His care and His greatness, all in one very little but so precious baby girl.

Today Noel would have been 1 years old. And though I write this post to share her story in honor of her birthday, I also write it to say thank you to her parents. Thank you for sharing your story with me, thank you for sharing your precious baby girl with me. Thank you for showing me how to be faithful and persevere in prayer. Thank you for showing me what being courageous and stepping out in faith is. Thank you for showing me what trusting in God looks like. I know for a fact but yet I cannot even imagine how hard this year has been for you. Even through your faithfulness I know there is heartache. Even through your courage, there are tears, and even through your trusting in God there's a daily struggle to keep going. But regardless of all that, you are still standing strong in the Lord and you keep inspiring so many people. I think about Noel so much and I get so excited when I get to share her story. I see her pictures all the time and I always smile knowing what a great life she had and is having with our Lord. I pray that you will continue to be strengthened and I cant wait for the day that you both will be reunited with your precious baby girl. 

Noel might not be on this earth any more, but she is living through all of us that love her. She keeps shining just like Jesus! I am so thankful today that I get to write this for her. Noel you will live through me always! And one last thing I want to say thank you for to Noel's parents is...

Thank you for allowing me to witness a miracle, your precious little miracle Noel.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together 

in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." 

Psalm 139:13-14

A heart that beats for Jesus

This post is rather different from what I usually write about. I mostly share my rejoicing heart as God brings me through battles and I get to see His wonderful works. I love sharing testimony of His greatness and how Jesus fills my heart so amazingly. Yet there is a battle I will always be in, and one that I am willing to fight until the end of my days. That is the fight of bringing people to Jesus, to know of His love and to surrender their lives to the One who gave it all at the cross for you and me!

As I came to Christ and trying different ministries at my home church, I found my calling in prayer. I learned the importance of prayer as it is our way to communicate with God and have that amazing relationship with Him grow and be strengthen. I've learned that is not a way to get our needs met, but rather with prayer we get answers from Him and learn of His will for our lives. I get to talk to Him about anything, I get to sing to Him through worship, I get to share my heart's desires and I even get to cry out to Him. In return, Jesus hears me, He gives me counsel, He shows me His ways and in the troubled times, He holds me and He comforts me. I also get to confess to Him my sin and He forgives me, I get to praise Him and He smiles, and I get to mediate on His word and He speaks to me. But the most beautiful thing that happens in prayer is that I get to pray for others, I get to intercede for them in their needs, their hurts, their struggles but also rejoice in their victories through an answered prayer.

When I say this is the most beautiful part of prayer for me, I say this because I have found that as I intercede for others Jesus shows me many things. He shows me how He views others, how He loves them, how He can help them overcome, how He desires to help them, but what mostly touches me is when He shows me how much He hurts for them. When Jesus shares a piece of His heart and shows me what lies inside for all of us, thats when I know that I am willing to fight for Him for others. I see the greatness that can come from Him and what some people's lives can become if they would only turn to Him. I see Him hurting as many of us take it upon ourselves to find punishment and self condemnation for the sins He already paid for us IN FULL and the cross! 

He desires for all to come to know Him and He helps all of us who want to follow His commandment and make disciples of all nations. He shows us through prayer a piece of His heart. As I decided to follow Jesus, I gave Him my heart and through the relationship I have with Him, we are able to share many things. I do not however, know every detail, neither do I have answers to everything, much less fully understand His love and how He hurts, but the little that He shares with me, is enough to understand Him and what lies in someone else's heart.

See, it doesn't matter the struggle that you are in, the fact is more than likely you are hurting, and Jesus hurts too. He hurts when He sees what you can become and refuse to become. He hurts when He has the answer waiting for your struggles and He has to wait for you to want them, because you wont receive them from Him. He hurts when He sees others hurt you and cannot do anything about it because you are not interested in Him fighting for you. And through all of this, as those that pray in intercession for others, Jesus shares His heart. But this doesn't make us anything special, it only allows us to understand what you might be going through. Personally I am able to put myself in people's shoes and feel their pain without knowing details of their lives or what they might be going through. I am able to honestly say "I get it" and "I understand" and truly identify with the pain I once faced in my own struggles.

One of the hardest things I have encountered however in my time of intercession and trying to help others, is being pushed away from someone's life. I doesn't only mean a person pushing me out of their life but also loosing contact with a person for any given circumstance or seeing a progress and then a previous path gets taken, and everything that was worked for seems pointless. Time and time I've felt discouraged at this, yet I refuse to stop believing that things can change for everyone and that there is hope regardless of a situation or circumstance. God can bring us through the hardest most impossible battles, yet I must understand that this will be at His timing and not mine. Most importantly, I must accept that God can use me to plan seeds and share His love, but I am not always going to see those seeds grow, or see the final outcome of another person's struggle. Yet I can trust in Him and trust every situation and every person in His hands, knowing that sooner or later my prayers of intercession will be answered. 

For all that I've talked about in this post and as I have shared in giving my heart to Jesus and in return Him sharing a piece of His heart with me, I have titled this post. Today I hold a heart that beats for Jesus, and I pray that my heart not only continues to beat for Him but also works for Him and share with others of His love. 

I want to encourage all those prayer warriors out there, to not loose hope and to keep fighting along side all whom Christ has called in the front line. To be courageous and not step down from this battle of others knowing the love of Christ. To know that God uses every little bit of effort we put into sharing His love and uses every single prayer in great power. And for those people who know they are  being prayed for and/or have been shared the love of Christ, but have not accepted it... I ask when will you? What is stopping you? Don't be afraid! Jesus is waiting with open arms to receive you and care for you. He is waiting to change your heart and win those struggles for you. And He wants you to know that you are not alone, that there is a church full of people who you can call brothers and sisters who have, are facing and will face the same struggles. People whom Jesus shares His heart with and shows them not only how to help you and understand you but also how to love you. But most importantly, Jesus is anxiously waiting to share His heart with you and pour out His love for you! Will you allow Him to do that? I promise the rewards are endless...

I pray that we will all one day have a heart that beats for Jesus!