Finding Confidence in Christ - Encouraging, empowering and inspiring women to embrace their identity in Christ
Faith

Dare to believe Jesus

Kelly Kirby Worley
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Kelly Kirby Worley
Hi, my name is Kelly. I am an artist, writer & Jesus girl with a passion for helping others discover and embrace their identity, value and confidence in Christ.
Kelly Kirby Worley
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Dare to believe JesusEvery day began the same way; on my knees with my face to the floor, I wept and prayed, “Jesus, I need you to come and get me. You’ve softened my heart too much; I can’t live in a world where people who say they love you could be so careless and cruel.”

Jesus didn’t take away my pain or remove me from my circumstances. Instead, He told me to seek solace in my Bible and dared me to believe He would do what His Word promises He will do.

Oh, sweet friend, there are no words to express how much I cherish this bittersweet season in retrospect. When I think about the time spent snuggled up with Jesus, I realize how few people experience this kind of intimacy with Him because it often comes at high cost and sacrifice.

In Matthew 16, Jesus explains to His disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. (Matt 16:24-26 NLT)

As I let go and yielded all my desires to Him, He poured out His love demolishing my fears of abandonment and rejection and rebuilt my life in Jesus, the only true foundation. Today, I unequivocally declare, I am a different person, a new person, a much better person all because God held my hand and led me through the refining fire of adversity. And you know what, I’d do it again in a heartbeat because nothing in this world is better than intimacy with Jesus.

I can’t help but wonder who might be walking a similar path today, desperate to know there’s hope beyond her circumstances. So, sweet sister in Christ, I’d like to pray for you by name if you comment below. Otherwise, I trust the Lord to deliver.

Dear Father, thank you that you never leave me alone and abandoned to my circumstances. Thank You that You are with me right now, even though I can’t feel you; I believe You are working all things out for my good because You love me. With my mind fixed on You, I ask for Your perfect peace, trusting You and daring to believe the fulfillment of Your promises has already begun. In the mighty and precious name of Jesus, I pray, Amen

Faith

Nothing in this life compares to the joy of knowing Christ.

Kelly Kirby Worley
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Kelly Kirby Worley
Hi, my name is Kelly. I am an artist, writer & Jesus girl with a passion for helping others discover and embrace their identity, value and confidence in Christ.
Kelly Kirby Worley
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Latest posts by Kelly Kirby Worley (see all)

Kelly and Asher

How will they know if you don’t speak?

That’s the question that lands in my heart as I stare at the blinking cursor on my screen.  My eyes well with tears, and my heart aches as the Lord reveals the uncomfortable truth – partial obedience still equates to disobedience.   I boldly proclaim my love for Jesus and my yearning for others to know and love Him, and yet, I often allow fear and insecurity to keep me silent when God clearly instructs me to speak.  (Mark 4:21-22)

God gives each of us a powerful story that no one else can tell; it often takes courage and confidence beyond what we possess to share it. (2 Corinthians 12:9)  But as I consider all the ways I could use this opportunity to illustrate the love of Christ, there’s no more generous offering than unshakable evidence that nothing is better than intimacy with Jesus, even when it takes place in a season of suffering.

Several years ago, the Lord saved me from an abusive marriage and narcissistic husband who ridiculed me for everything I did, including loving Jesus.  Despite all that, I prayed for my husband; I refused to see what was because I knew what could be with God.  But then, when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I learned of his unfaithfulness and sordid details of things he said and did behind my back for the length of our marriage.  I was beyond broken; I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, but what hurt most was knowing that the God I loved and adored allowed this to happen.

God alone knows the exact remedy to soothe our shattered hearts. Following the divorce, I buried my head in His Word and spent more time on my knees those first eight months than in all previous years combined. Though I cried enough tears to fill an ocean, God proved He is trustworthy and blessed me with my very own Jubilee year, just like in Leviticus 25.  Remarkably, it was the year I’d be turning 50; God graciously took care of all my finances, restored injured familial relationships, even gave me a home in the same neighborhood I lived in before the marriage. But wait, that’s not even the best part.

When a dear friend’s childcare for her newborn son, Asher, fell through at the last minute, she asked for my help. Had my marriage not fallen apart, I would never have said yes.  Oh, what a blessing I would have missed!!! Every day I got to hold that tiny baby boy in my arms and rock him to sleep as I poured my heart out to God through songs of worship.  There were moments God’s presence was so close I could feel His breath on my neck as He whispered, “Kelly, do you see how you are holding this baby?  Do you feel how relaxed he is in your arms?  Imagine that this is you, resting upon my chest while I sing over you.  Fix your eyes on me until I have become your confidence; let go of all your worries, my child.

It’s been just over four years, and I still cry when I look over my journal entries from that year.  But the tears aren’t from pain; quite the opposite, it’s the overwhelming presence of God that shows up in the life of a believer when we want Him more than we want anything else on this earth.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, I pray you’ll find hope in this promise – God WILL use the hard things we live through for our good when we place them in His hands.  Had it not been for this tragic divorce, I’d still have termites in my foundation, a false sense of identity that leads me to seek security in relationships with people, and in the role of being someone’s wife.  Oh, sweet sister, please hear and believe me when I say nothing in this life compares to the ecstatic joy of knowing, loving, and sharing secrets with Christ! (Psalm 4:7 NET; Psalm 16:11; Psalm 43:4; 1 Peter 1:8b)

Sending peace, love, and prayers to all!

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Faith

Love, not legalism, is the way to Jesus’ heart
Jesus' NT teaching is crystal clear; love, not legalism, is the way to His heart and the freedom that is ours in Christ.
Kelly Kirby Worley
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Kelly Kirby Worley
Hi, my name is Kelly. I am an artist, writer & Jesus girl with a passion for helping others discover and embrace their identity, value and confidence in Christ.
Kelly Kirby Worley
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I’m a rule follower, pure and simple. Like every imperfect human, I step outside of the lines, but my temporary disobedience dissipates in the face of fear that I might get caught, or worse, punished. While this mentality is okay in general, it is contrary to Jesus’ instruction for obedience to God’s laws.

Legalism

Growing up in a small-town Baptist church, everything I learned about God scared me. I pictured a wise-old man with a long grey beard and stern face always watching and ready to pounce when I couldn’t resist doing a “do-not-do.” Instead of seeking a personal relationship with Jesus, my faith-walk existed of a never-ending, nerve-racking game of Step on the crack; you’ll break your mother’s back.

While I’ve grown beyond the childish games, my thinking still sometimes veers off the course of Truth. But God is faithful in His promise to show us the right way to go. (Psl 32:8) While reading today’s lesson from, The Answers to Your Deepest Longings, an Online Bibles Study with P31 Ministries, He showed me something new and exciting that I’ve never seen before.

The command to “Remember to keep the Sabbath Holy” falls in an uncomfortable gray area for me. Instead of setting aside a whole day to worship God, I choose to begin every day with Him and His Word. Sometimes, when Sunday rolls around and I decide to do a simple household chore or spend time writing, a sense of guilt washes over me. Then a subconscious narrative takes place in my head where I try to justify my actions; it’s an uncomfortable battle of the mind that I rarely win.

God’s Word illuminates Truth

But this morning, the Lord led me to a verse that left me slack-jawed:
“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” (Col 2:16 ESV)

I’ve read this verse before, but I somehow missed Paul’s point: trading our freedom in Christ for human-made legalistic rules is useless because legalism does not have the power to save or restrain sin. (cf Gal 5:1)

I dig deeper into Jesus’ NT teachings and unearth 6 reasons why Christians are not required to keep the Sabbath Command:

  1. The Sabbath was a sign of the Mosaic covenant, but we are under the New Covenant (2 Cor 3; Heb 8)
  2. there is no NT command to keep the Sabbath;
  3. the first command to keep the Sabbath was not until the time of Moses (Ex. 20:8);
  4. the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) did not order Gentile believers to keep the Sabbath;
  5. Paul never cautioned Christians about breaking the Sabbath; and
  6. the NT explicitly teaches that Sabbath-keeping was not a requirement (Rom. 14:5; Gal. 4:10, 11; Col. 2:16, 17 )

Jesus’ message is crystal clear: Legalism and love cannot coexist. Like guardrails on a curvy mountain road, God provides boundaries not to rule over us, but to protect us.

Tears fill my eyes as the image of our loving Heavenly Father supersedes the cold, make-believe God that so many of us turn away from out of fear. God’s Word shed’s light on the lies we believe and sets us free from burdens He never meant for us to carry.

Sending peace, love, and prayers to all!

 

Faith

Truth illuminates the mind and dispels the lies

Kelly Kirby Worley
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Kelly Kirby Worley
Hi, my name is Kelly. I am an artist, writer & Jesus girl with a passion for helping others discover and embrace their identity, value and confidence in Christ.
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Lies die in the light of Truth

Lies cannot stand in the light of God’s Word

Do you recognize the lies used by the enemy to make you stumble?   “If things don’t work out the way I plan, it means I do not have enough faith.”  This is one of Satan’s go-to lies he uses to undermine my faith and make me think that God is holding out on me because I don’t live up to his expectations.

Seduction and Deceit

Deceit is one of the enemy’s favorite tactics in his assault on God’s children. Since he has no authority over us, he seductively wields questions at us to create confusion. To make us doubt God’s goodness and faithfulness.

The only offensive weapon we have in this spiritual battle is God’s Word, the Sword of the Spirit. That’s why spending time reading the Bible every day is crucial in rebuking the enemy’s lies.

So when the enemy tries to make me think that God is holding out on me because I don’t have enough faith in him, I know he is lying because:

  • James says trials come to test our faith, to produce perseverance. (James 1:2-3);
  • The apostle Peter says God allows problems in our lives to test us. (1 Peter 4:12-14)
  • The apostle Paul says God uses all things for the good for those who love him. (Romans 8:28); and
  • Paul tells us that we will face trials because of our faith. (1 Thessalonians 3:3-4)

Uncover the lies so you can replace them with Truth

Do you know what lie or false belief the enemy uses to create doubt in your life? If you don’t, think about an area of your life where conflict and confusion is a common element. Chances are that’s your Achilles’ heel. Once you uncover the lie, use your Bible’s concordance to search scriptures that speak Truth over your false beliefs.

Remembering who God says we are keeps our emotions under control and equips us to live in the victory that is ours in Christ.

Sending peace, love, and prayers to all!

Kelly

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Faith

How to have peace by giving your life to Christ

Kelly Kirby Worley
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Kelly Kirby Worley
Hi, my name is Kelly. I am an artist, writer & Jesus girl with a passion for helping others discover and embrace their identity, value and confidence in Christ.
Kelly Kirby Worley
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Latest posts by Kelly Kirby Worley (see all)

life in ChristDeciding to become a Christian is a decision I made as a young girl. But, I didn’t fully relinquish my heart to Jesus until I was in my 40’s. That’s because everything I knew about how I was supposed to “act” as a Christian revolved around rule-keeping, which, no matter how hard I tried, I could not do.

By designing a list of impossible rules for any human to uphold, God reveals our inability to save ourselves and thereby our desperate need for a Savior. From the get-go, the Old Testament teachings’ goal was always to point us to Jesus. (Romans 7:7)

The believer’s struggle with sin

Every believer struggles with the boundaries between good intentions and contradictory behavior at some point in our walk with Christ. That’s why the apostle Paul continually encourages us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. When we illuminate our minds with the Gospel, the fruitlessness of legalistic thinking is unmasked, and we are set free to experience the fullness of life in Christ.

Paul’s letters, especially the book of Romans, exposes the deathtrap of striving to accomplish something that only Jesus can do. (Romans 7:14-25) Because he understands and wants to help us in our struggle with sin, Paul reveals the only path to salvation in Romans chapter 10:8-12:

  1. Ask for forgiveness of sins
  2. Trust in Jesus as your resurrected Savior, and
  3. Let Him lead your life

With so much uncertainty about the future, peace in my life wouldn’t be possible without Christ. What about you; are you ready to roll your burdens onto the shoulders of Jesus?  

Romans 10:9 says that when we publicly declare with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will experience salvation. A heart that decides to believe in Him receives the gift of righteousness and new life in Christ.

Just choose Jesus

Just choose to believe. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have any questions or understand all there is to know. It’s a humble admission to your heavenly Father and Creator that you cannot be good enough for a perfect God without His help. You can express your belief and trust in Jesus through prayer. Romans 10:9-12 will guide you, or feel free to use the prayer below.

Dear God, I know that my sin has separated me from you. Thank you that Jesus Christ died in my place. I ask Jesus to forgive my sin and to come into my life. Please begin to direct my life. Thank you for giving me eternal life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Sending love, peace, and prayers to all!

Kelly Kirby Worley Christian Blogger

 

 

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