My Past/My Chains

I've been thinking about using this blogspot as my personal testimony especially in regards to my previous post today. God has put it on my heart to take you all the way back to the beginning for me- back to a place I don't like to visit in my past, but a place of redemption. The memories of my past mistakes no longer haunt me with the same torment as once before because I now recognize how I've been set free. Don't get me wrong, the devil still tries his hardest to fill me with shame and doubt but he doesn't get as far as used to in that attack.

As a dorm manager, I have had many opportunities to sit with girls as they pour out their shame at my feet about past mistakes and decsisions that they can't shake off. As I have listened to countless confessions of pain and sin, I have found myself speaking God's truth to them about how there is "no comdemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." It's much easier to try to convince someone else that their sins have been forgiven and the slate wiped clean than it is to accept that truth for myself. Maybe that is one of the reasons God has placed me in such a position- because He knew that surely after repeating the same thing over and over to many hurting young women, that maybe I would eventually get it!! Maybe then I would apply the same truth to my life. Maybe after promising over and over that God's love is unconditional, I would accept that truth as my own. I think God knew what He was doing!

I used to keep all my secrets to myself thinking that if I uncovered them, my authority would deminish in the eyes of the college girls I have influence over. That was a lie from the pit of hell and God has been revealing that to me gradually over the past couple of years. Now, I do believe that it is very important to be discerning with information, but I have begun to see a pattern from my Almighty God. Every time He brings me a precious wounded young woman with tears in her eyes, it doesn't take long to notice that my story is so similar to hers. Every single time. It's like He keeps bringing me people to minister to that He knows will unlock some secret unhealed hurt in my own life. I used to be so afraid, so wrapped up in fear of someone finding out the "real dirt" about Donna McDaniel Strachan, but oh, how the ways of God are so much greater than our fears!!!

"My chains are gone
I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace"

Testimony Time

Well, guys, I have to tell you that God has been writing it on my heart for months now to use this blog to glorify Him. I know I need to be journaling about the things He has been and is continuing to do in my life and this seems to be the perfect avenue for that. I believe that God is stirring within me a boldness to speak of His fingerprints in my daily life and although my flesh is hesitant to speak out for fear of looking crazy, foolish or misguided, I know that God's spirit within me is greater and I want to obey.

There seems to be so much that I need to catch everyone up on, but I will just take this journey slow and easy because I do tend to get overwhelmed and quit altogether- the devil knows this about me and I am determined not to let him win this time!! I want to be consistent with this blog and use it as a means to encourage, uplift and spur others on to the calling God has for us all in developing intimacy with Him.

This verse in Jeremiah 33:3 has been speaking to me for several years now.

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."

I have prayed hard for a long time for God to show me great and unsearchable things. I have called on Him to show me "more of Him" and He has answered. He has the same desire to answer all of us in this way. There is more.... God is bigger and greater than we will ever know. I want to share with you my journey. I pray that in the details of my story, you will feel, see and hear God in yours.

One of my new favorite verses in Scripure comes from Revelation 19:10,

"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"

In other words, the testimony of Jesus in our lives is the very spirit and prophecy of what He can and will do in someone else's life. If God can redeem me, lift me from the pit, release my chains and set my spirit free to truly feel His love and acceptance of me...He will do the same for you. I promise.