God, I Can't...But I Know You CAN!

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2021 was challenging for all of us, to say the least. I don’t always share about my personal life outside of fitness, but I know God wants you to hear this. This message you are reading today is directly for you. I am going to take you through my 2021 trials and show you how each time God used them for His glory. 

Maybe today you have a mountain in front of you that you feel like you just don't have it in you to climb. That mountain can be a diagnosis, a lifelong struggle to reach your fitness goals. Or maybe even just finding the energy to try one more time. If you feel like you have nothing left, this episode today is for you. I haven't shared the things I'm going to share publicly today. I went through a very, very tough couple of months. And God put it on my heart to talk about it because he gave me a phrase from this time that I know is going to help you.

What Mountain Are You facing?

This summer, I went to get a mammogram and they said they saw something so I had to go back and it was terrifying. So at my appointment, I went back and I was laying on the table and I I remember staring I was at the Mayo Clinic and I remember staring up at the ceiling and I had cried out like all my prayer warrior sisters, I was like please pray for me. I'm so scared because I don't know if you know this, but we've had so many people that we love in our family who died of breast cancer.

So I was lying there, and I can still picture the ceiling;  they had four pictures of nature. And one of them was a mountain, which led me to pray, Mark 11:23.

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain Be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have what he says.”

I just kept praying that Oh, my goodness, I prayed it out loud. I just literally could picture myself taking the thought of breast cancer, and throwing it like a mountain into the sea, and just saying no, no, in the name of Jesus. And then right, right after that, it says, in Mark 11:24, it says,

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe you receive them, and you will have them.” 

I remember the doctor coming back into the room and telling me everything was fine. And I knew it was in my spirit and my heart of hearts. But until I heard that, I was just like, believe God, believe God, you know, until you get the final word. And I needed to get alone and cry. And so as I was walking back through the waiting room, I saw a lot of other women not getting the good news that I had gotten. I went in that bathroom and I feel on my knees and I just prayed...Thank you, God!

One Thing After Another

God is calling you to something and the devil is trying to distract and destroy you right now. Right after I had the mammogram, I had dental issues. I cracked a brand new crown and it needed to get fixed. Then I go to my monthly gyno appointment and they find polyps. So, I'm waiting...are they cancerous...they remove them, they're fine. Then I go to get my first colonoscopy and they find more polyps! Praise God it came back benign but just that waiting for four or five weeks, I had all these like cancer scares. 

Then to top it all off, I got COVID at a Bible study, I went to a Bible study, and I ended up getting COVID!! So all of this happened within a very short timeframe. During my 14-day quarantine, one of my very good friends, Keratin was killed in a car accident. 

It Wasn’t Ideal Timing For Me

After almost 10 years of trying to get a Christian fitness book published, Salem Media offered me a publishing deal during all of this. I was like, seriously...now they're going to give me a deal?! And I'm not going to lie, I just didn't know if I had it in me. But as I prayed, God made it clear that the enemy had been trying to do everything he could to distract me to destroy me to derail me. 

But Jesus came so that we could have life and live more abundantly. And it was like a light switched on and I was like, “Wait a minute...that's why all of this is going on!!”

So, I have to ask you right now is the devil trying to derail and distract you? Is he trying to destroy God's plan for you, as he did to me?

We think, oh my gosh, why is all this happening? I just want to quit. I just can't. It is so much deeper than that. I'm not gonna lie, I was on the fence about writing another book. And you know, another Bible-based fitness book, it felt like a mountain I didn't know if I could climb.

God just made it clear. I just said, God, what do you want me to do? And I was like, I just don't think I can do this. And he's like, you're right. You can't, but I can. If you hear anything today, hold on to this, like, write it across your heart. 

God, I know I can't, but I know you can. 

Let’s pray together, friend.

Dear God,

My heart cries out for those of us who are ready to quit, who are so deceived by the enemy. We don't see it. Father open our eyes to where he wants us to quit. My heart is just crying out right now for those people who are ready to give up. I know how they feel  like they just can't keep going and they don't know how to make it through. Father by the power of your Holy Spirit. Take us to these places in our thoughts, point them out. Shine a flashlight on them so we can see them and know that we're being lied. Make a way where there is no way and help us stay alert because the enemy is always trying to derail your plans. In our weakest moments, you are our strength. God, we're fully relying on you to renew us, set our feet on the right path. Give our hearts a glimpse of what's on the other side of what we're facing, don't let us quit in our Spirits.

I pray every sister listening is refreshed in you and that her Mountain is removed. And she has what she has been praying for and believing for in her Spirit...even before she sees it. I want her to just have a moment of seeing it and in you Father that it's possible.

In Jesus’ name, amen.