Words are Weapons

Recently I have been through a roller coaster of events from changing my job to my health changes. If you have followed the blog and website from the beginning you will know that I have suffered from depression and anxiety for many years but for the past year and a half I have been free of this illness, until now.

Depression is like the devil it can strike you at any time especially when you let your defences down. Your faith is your defence from evil but sometimes it can tiring and you can feel exhausted from being a ‘good Christian’ I try every day to be a ‘good Christian’ and I know that I can’t be perfect but I am a perfectionist which makes it harder to understand that I can’t be perfect at something which will make me feel down and when I say down I mean rock bottom.

In my life I have been a butterfly when it comes to friends and the reason being is that I would take offence to a lot of things spoke to me and sometimes I ‘overreact’ so I have moved on from friends because of this but I think that this is a great thing as it has gotten me to where I am today. With a strong bunch of friends are fellow Christians who surround me and support me.

Recently I've decided to try not to focus on people’s words as words are really powerful and can tear you down.

In the news this week, I've heard a lot about 'Hate Preachers' and Donald Trump to be exact, and my one question is this, why do we listen. He has no power over any of us. The one who has power and almighty love for us is God. Why do we keep listening to other people who we know are going to poison us with their hate words and hate opinions and evil plans? When we could listen to a higher being who is the definition of love.

That is exactly what they want. When I was as a primary school I was bullied and sadly many of you will be reading this and can agree with me in saying that you were bullied also. And when I was bullied I would be called hurtful names and I would get upset and ask for help from others to solve the problems. And that to me is a lesson. It was prepping us for adult life. We need to ask for help from the one who can help, the one and only Lord Almighty. We need to ask him to help us, and pray for guidance. 

When we grow up we tell ourselves that we can’t be bullied but were wrong. We can be bullied, with social media causing most of the problems in today’s society. Sadly many people try to cope with cyber bullying and people using words as weapons towards them alone, just remember you are never alone, God walks alongside you, and he is always there. So next time you put a photo on twitter or Instagram with a cup of coffee and your bible and the caption states ‘I loves Jesus’. Do not be ashamed, do not feel like you are going to hurt anyone. 

Sometimes you may be ridiculed for taking a stand for Jesus. Sometimes you suffer. Sometimes we will suffer but mainly from other people’s sins, take Adam and Eve for example. Eve took the fruit initially and they both were banished. - Genesis 3:6, 23. 

James 1:3 - When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 

Also take challenges as opportunities.

Be Christ like and do not follow the crowd. Be the leader. Lead people to the cross. Lead them to salvation. When people are writing mean and hurtful words to you or aiming them at you. Just speak to God. He already knows what’s going on but speak to him for clarity and wisdom. 

Don't listen to hate words, they just poison your mind, when you listen to people speaking hate, or gossip, pray to the lord for redemption and forgiveness. He will purify your mind and give you peace. Instead of listening or speaking hate words, speak words of thanks and praise to God, it is much more productive.

When you listen to words which aren't good for soul, they stir your thoughts and the people around you use your tears as instruments in their band of hate and suffering.

Sometimes we will suffer but mainly from other people’s sins, take Adam and Eve for example. Eve took the fruit initially and they both were banished. - Genesis 3:6, 23. 

I urge you all not to listen to hate preachers and words used as weapons on the news, social media and even from people who surround you. Be Christ like and speak words of truth and love from the heart and the gospel. 

Thank you for reading this blog, I pray this blog helps you in your daily life.

Jessica Louise xoxo 

Founder and Head Writer of the Bible for Women

Heads Up! - Part 1

Heads Up, this series will explore a few situations when we need to lift up our heads in life and be confident and positive.

Today I was super stressed and upset and just so emotional as I was off to meet with a friend I haven't seen or heard from in 4 years, this girl was my best friend through secondary school and music concerts and everything, and then we both moved on to college and just lost contact and I was so scared and nervous to meet her again, my tummy was turning I felt sick, I felt like I was burning up and was going to pass out, then I sat down calmed myself to the best of ability and then enjoyed a weird catch up for the past 4 years, it was crazy, it was emotional and I'm still feeling poorly from the stress of it all and I'd like to say to you today that if something is so important don't let the stress or doubts in your head allow you to be poorly and unwell with it because it will be worth it in the long run, I have enjoyed meeting up with her again but also I'm emotional and just praying for peace on the situation as I need peace and I need courage from the Lord if I am to meet her again which I do hope happens and maybe not wait 4 years again!

Sometimes the devil can place these horrible thoughts and seeds of doubt in your head. The bible says
Proverbs 3:5-8
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

Pray to God to reveal what your path is, and what you need to do, pray for a peace if your unsure, when you ask for something from God it is given. He loves you! He gave you his only son, he will give you a peace about something if it's right.

James 1:6
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

Don't let the doubts in! Be strong minded by following the next few tips;
-Study the bible DAILY
-Pray DAILY
-Worship Daily
-Encourage others DAILY
-Wear Love DAILY

By following these tips you will be strong minded, your self-worth will rocket, and you will know the Lord so you know when the devil is trying to get at you. You know his method is through your weakness so be strong and make that weakness and strength.

C’mon I urge you all today to be strong minded, keep your head up! Be Christ like!
Thank you for reading today's first part of Heads Up! I hope you enjoy the next part of series let me know on
jessica@bibleforwomen.co.uk 

Love Jessica Louise Xoxo 

Heads Up! Part 2

Hey everyone what a week it has been! In 2 weeks I will be venturing to Gran Canaria with Kieran (boyfriend) and I am super excited to get away and escape the day to day pressures and stress. Recently I have been letting things get on top of me and my self-confidence has been like a rollercoaster, some days I’m great, and my inner dialogue is I’m a daughter of the king I can do anything. But some days I’m not so good and my inner thoughts are maybe I shouldn’t do that because of other people’s opinions. Well today I’m here to talk you through my situation and hope it helps you overcome yours.

My situation is work based, we all know the main pressures in daily life is our jobs, maybe because you might be the only Christian or maybe because your life is totally different to people around you, or maybe you just don’t get along with the people you work with. And I’m here to tell you I understand! I understand because I am the only Christian girl in my work place and sometimes it is quite negative the comments from people around you. You know the problems, gossip and lies, just trouble.

The past few weeks I have had to develop a positive mind set, because if I didn’t I would not be working in the job I am right now. I have needed strength and courage. And lots of it.

Firstly I’m here to tell you to be bold! Get that heavy head of yours which might be filled with negative thoughts and shake the negativity away, you don’t have to live like that. When I was thinking about this blog these lyrics came into my head

‘Now my debt is paid in full by the precious blood that my Jesus spilt, the curse of sin has no hold on me, whom the sun sets free, is free’ from Man of Sorrows by Hillsong. Give it a listen, it is uplifting.

You are reading this because you want a stronger relationship with the Lord and you are wanting to follow his word… His word says this…

Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

That is his truth! Be STRONG, COURAGEOUS, NOT AFRAID, and NOT DISCOURAGED. Listen to the word, and do something about it. I have noticed the more I read the word the more I become stronger and less inclined to listen to negativity. I now have a filter in my head and heart and when people speak to me I know in the first few words if what they are speaking is truth or trash.

(I did a study a few weeks ago and loved the idea of filtering your thoughts therefore I gave it a go and 2 months on I am finding it very easy now to decide if I am going to listen or ignore it.)

Sometimes we all have a bad day, a dark season, a challenge but we are all made in the image of the Lord and he knows what you’re capable of and he would not give you opportunities like this if they weren’t important or to be used in the future maybe in a testimony to help others.

Matthew 5:16 - In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

-                                                      -                                             -         

Psalm 18:2 - The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

And that's just it isn't it? It all comes down the Lord who is your rock, stick with him and he will help you to keep positive and guide you in the right place.

Try to find at least 3 positive scriptures to read each day and meditate on them and just live through them. Live positively, live courageously and live strongly with God at the centre.

Thanks for reading the second part of the series Heads Up!

Have a blessed week!

Love Jessica Louise Xoxo

Standing Together / Steady Your Boat

As many of you know I have a great friend called Brittany Nicole and she is the founder of Stepping on dandelions. She is a young girl who dedicates her time to God and helping others by sharing her life experiences and journeys with her followers. And the other today she emailed me, which we do quite often, and it got me thinking and made me reevaluate my friendships because the bible says we are children of God. And personally I believe we all need to stand together in doing good on this planet. And it doesn't matter how far away your friends are (my friend Brittany is 4,119 miles away but I can honestly say she is one of my closest friends and she is full of faith and supports me on my journey) so when your talking to your friends just be Christlike and others with see that and want to be like you.

1 Thessalonians 5:11- Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 - Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

I love having friends who are fellow Christians because it's what we need it's good for our minds, and souls and spiritually it's great for our faith as it challenges us and explores our boundaries. We need to stand together in the storm and throughout our difficulties in life and keep our friends close by and just talk to your friends about experiences with the Lord and you will grow in confidence and faith. I know this is hard but it is so rewarding in the long term.

Recently I had a vision while worshiping and it simply was a boat with my church family inside, and we were all balancing the boat, working together to keep the boat, the vessel afloat and while the rocky shores and waves hit the boat we stayed afloat because of us joining and standing together. We worked as a team, as a family and when difficulties and darkness struck we were safe and when we reached the sandy beaches we danced in the sunlight, the light flowed from the people and surroundings because we steadied the boat and came through the other side, the boat represented the family of church and the waves and rocky shores represented the challenges but the sand represented a free place to worship the Lord, a free place of expression where know one is judged or mocked for what and who they believe in. 

And my church family is the church we don't need a building to worship and pray! We need each other and the support and help and guidance from each other, and praying and encouraging one another, well that's all their is, we all joined together for one cause for one creator for one author. Visions are a gift from God, if you ever experience an image or a word or a song or anything which God has given you, do not be afraid, express it , share it, speak about it, and do something about it. Gifts are not to taken granted for, we should be thankful and we should praise him every day for the gifts he has given and gifts he will give us in the future. 

Thank you for reading today's blog on standing together and I urge you to steady your boats because the waves and rocky shores are in the near distance, steady your boat and passengers, and the end result and the view will be spectacular and so worth the challenges. Gods light will flow from you and your surroundings. Stead your boat and get ready for brilliant but bumpy journey ahead.
Thank you & God Bless
Love Jessica Louise Xoxo

Broken

Hey everyone today I want to share with you a little advice and a little testimony.  

Basically I've had depression, I've had panic anxiety attacks I've been through it all, triggered by loss and grief. But after I recovered from the dark times, I had a great few years, I found Christ! It wasn't easy I still had sad lonely days but doesn't everyone?
But today I am here to tell you that even though I am healed by the Lord, I still have days where I feel broken, where I feel like nothing and know one can help me, I feel hopeless and alone. And I'm here to tell you instead of saying I'm broken say I'm okay! Because you are! We are! We were not created to be broken in our faith, therefore we have to plant ourselves deeper in the Lord and just reply on him and his word. 

To be broken is not your calling and it's definitely not your status in life. 
We are called for so much more and trust me when I say this, it's not easy to defeat depression, I know because I recovered 2 years ago and I know it's trying to make a comeback, but I am strong in my faith and I know it's the devil knocking on my door but he has already stirred my relationships up and I'm loosing important people to me, and I say no more! I rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus. Today rebuke him! Tell him I am child of the Lord and you can't steal that relationship from me, you aren't stealing anything from me, my joy, my peace, my security, my life. No it's not going to happen! 

I woke up today feeling low and had an argument with someone very close to me and I honestly felt so alone and so broken but I went out tried to keep my head up and when I got home I slumped back down and while crying I realised and asked myself why am I crying? This is a lesson Jesus is going to use in the future for others, he will use my sad and dark days to help others so here I am aiming to give you guidance and help on standing firm in your faith through the depression, through the anxiety, through the failed relationships, whatever happens in your life, remember the one who loves you so much he sacrificed his one and only son for you. 

Remember to be grateful were far to blessed to be stressed and trust me I know how hard it is to not be stressed, stress is a huge part of my life I literally stress at everything until I remember I'm far to blessed for this to even bother me. 
Thanks for reading girls if you want to speak more to me about this topic email me on jessica@bibleforwomen.co.uk  

Love Jessica Louise Xoxo  

Under Attack

Hey everyone, this week has been very busy, I feel like I am constantly busy, and that's great we all should be busy with whatever life throws at us but sometimes I sometimes feel like I would like to just escape from it all. And today I would like to ask you all, are you suffering? are you alone? do you feel like theirs no hope? Do you feel like ending it all? If you answered yes to any of these I would like to just take a moment to tell you that I pray over these blogs and I pray for the reader to receive whatever healing you are in need of.

I'm going to break this blog into parts to make it easier to process and dissect. 

Part 1 // When we are going through a dark place and you feel you need to escape from your circumstances and you feel like theirs nothing you can do. Well your wrong. When you feel alone in your circumstances whatever they may be turn to The Lord. 

Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.

When you feel like things are getting on top of your, and you can't cope anymore and you need to escape from it all. Escape by running into the arms of your loving and protective Lord and Savior. 

Recently I've started new and exciting journeys within my church and when things where starting to pile up and get on top of me, I ran to him. I sprinted and didn't look back. I know my place is with him and surrounded by the Holy Spirit. 

A few weeks ago I felt like I wasn't coping very well at all with anything, just walking down the street would bring anxiety and dread. I honestly felt alone and down in my faith, but while I down and saddened God came to me in a thought and gave me his idea. This idea was a mad idea and something that I took from a simple but wild idea and turned it into an action. Sometimes God places ideas and thoughts in you and it will help you escape from the darkness into the light. 

I feel much better now for running to him, and just giving him all my worries and burdens. 

Part 2 // God doesn't just provide us with ideas and thoughts on how to escape when were under attack from the devil. He can provide physical and literal ways to escape. 

I was thinking about ways God uses to help us escape from our situations and Noah came to mind. I love Noah! What a Godly man! #RelationshipGoals. 

Genesis 7:6-10 Noah was 600 years old when the floodwater covered the Earth. Noah and his wife and sons and their wives boarded the ship to escape the flood. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and all the crawling creatures came in pairs to Noah and to the ship, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. In seven days the floodwaters came.

11-12 It was the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month that it happened: all the underground springs erupted and all the windows of Heaven were thrown open. Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.

13-16 That’s the day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, accompanied by his wife and his sons’ wives, boarded the ship. And with them every kind of wild and domestic animal, right down to all the kinds of creatures that crawl and all kinds of birds and anything that flies. They came to Noah and to the ship in pairs—everything and anything that had the breath of life in it, male and female of every creature came just as God had commanded Noah. Then God shut the door behind him.

I love this scripture - My interpretation of this relating to escaping is that when your in a bad situation God will send you help whether it be instructions to build a boat or a thought on how to get out of the situation maybe strength and courage to help you along the way. And when your out of the situation and your safe away from your situation - the floods, God shuts the door he stops the floods from harming you. God guides you, if you simply just ask him. Pray to him. Talk to him, speak aloud, speak in your heart, just communicate with him and he will always be their for you. 

So next time you are lost and don't have any idea on how to escape your problems, just think of Noah and how brave he was trusting in the Lord and how amazing God is for guiding Noah away from the terror of the world, he gave him and his family a fresh start. A new beginning of life. 

Part 3 // Temptation is a huge topic for this blog. Because when you are tempted in whatever way God helps you escape from temptation so you can live a free and pleasing life. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 

Next time you are tempted, just tell yourself, God knows your limits and he knows how strong you are and whatever attempts to tempt you you are stronger that this and you can just simply walk away from it in because God wouldn't let anything you couldn't handle come your way. You are his children and you are protected. 

People think because your a Christian or Christ follower you life is easy and you live in happy land and we don't sin. Which is all false!! Life is never easy! We struggle, we have hopeless days, but you know one thing, Gods love lasts forever and whatever problem we face we can turn to him for guidance and he will help us escape from whatever situation we have gotten in. We need to face reality just because we are Christians doesn't mean we are happy every single day, our twitters and instagram might show us smiling and posing with out friends but only God knows our hearts and he knows how we truly feel inside, we might be frightened we might be thinking about ending it all, but God sees that and he will put in place an escape route you just need to turn to him and trust him, he is a faithful God.

So today girls I pray that you will escape from your floods and keep safe and just pray for an escape route because God has one for everyone and every situation all you need to do is ask. 

Thank you for reading, have a blessed week everyone. 

Love Jessica Louise xoxo 

Bored?

Bored?

Hey everyone this is a short blog on boredom… because today, I have come home from work and just lazed around the house and just recuperating but I felt bored. And I remember when I was at school everyone would say ‘This is boring’ or ‘I’m bored’ and it got me thinking why do people suffer from boredom? Seriously? Sometimes I think I’m bored and the next I think wait a second… I have so much going on in my mind and heart right now I’m not bored, I’m just having a lazy day, and yes sometimes we need a little rest but there is a difference between lazy and resting.

Make sure you know the difference. I know that I need rest and that it’s important to rest when I can because I am so busy doing God’s work all day and sometimes all night too. I love Gods work he has placed on my heart but sometimes I need a little reminder to keep determined and not be lazy and bored because being bored is an excuse to be lazy. I know it seems like a silly thing to think about but I found this scripture when reading earlier…

Ephesians 5: 2-2 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do… Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.

Also if you read Jeremiah 29:11 you will realise God has a plan for you and when you recognise your purpose in life you won’t be bored. What I have found is that when you follow Christ’s example you can’t be bored because when god is using you as his vessel to do his work and his good, you are being used to the best of your ability and you will never be bored.

Gods promises that if we love each other as long as we live we will not be spiritually dumb.  

You can read Gods promise in Hebrews 6:11-12.

Today I urge you all to imitate God in everything you do, live a life of love, and let God use you as his vessel to do his good work because if you do… You will be busy and fulfilling your purpose, otherwise you'll be being lazy and suffering from boredom. Remember if you are being lazy you will be bored. But if you don’t want to be bored, don’t be lazy.

Have a blessed week!

Love Jessica Louise Xoxo