Saved by His Grace

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV)

For the first three and a half years of my walk with Christ, I struggled a lot with my spiritual growth. I kept going in circles, constantly feeling discouraged. I’ve struggled to fully let go of bad habits and negative thought patterns from my former life. I struggled to fully forgive certain people who hurt me, and most importantly, I struggled to fully surrender my life to Christ.

But all glory to the Most High God, the past few months have been profoundly transformative in my spiritual walk, leading me to a deeper surrender to the Lord. Through this process, He has strengthened me in areas where I was once weak and vulnerable.

While I recognize that I still have much growth ahead of me, I trust that the Lord will continue to walk with me—faithfully revealing the areas of my life that need healing, refining what is broken, and guiding me to become more aligned with His will.

In this post, I want to share key lessons I have learned during my journey to help others who might be struggling to surrender as well. I will dive deeper into many of these areas in future blog posts, Lord willing.

What truly propelled my journey into surrendering more to God was true forgiveness and a lot of repentance. Trust me, holding onto any unforgiveness or bitterness in your heart will block you from spiritual breakthrough.

🔑 Make God your #1 priority and be consistent! Read the Bible more daily, press into prayer, praise and worship more, be in fellowship more. Create a schedule, plan to wake up earlier and go to sleep earlier. Have a season where you are constantly reading your Bible and fasting from social media and entertainment.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. –Joshua 1:8

🔑 Remove ALL unforgiveness and bitterness toward yourself and others who have hurt you. Pray continually to the Lord to help you forgive, and pray continually for those who hurt you, that they would come to know the Lord.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” –Matthew 6:14-15

🔑 Constantly repent of ALL sins and trespasses. Come to the Lord with a broken and contrite spirit. Repent and ask the Lord for His forgiveness. Renounce all agreements with works of darkness, ask the Lord for restoration and blessing upon those you hurt in your former life.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. –Psalms 51:17

🔑 Cry out to the Lord and confess any lukewarmness you have been living in and any struggles to fully trust and love Him. Confess and ask for forgiveness if you have been living with one foot in the world and one foot in Christ. Ask Him to purify your heart to only desire things of Him.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. –1 John 2:15-17

🔑 Be in constant fellowship with other like-minded believers. Be in a community of like-minded believers who lift each other up with prayer, encouragement and wisdom. Regular prayer and fellowship calls/meetings and Bible studies with other believers is essential. Isolation is a trap of the enemy.

KEY: Discover who your true family is, where you truly belong (in the family of Christ). Let go of all past hurts and desires to be accepted by those in the world.

If you don’t currently belong to a church or are in need of more fellowship, I invite you to join a free online Christian community of like-minded believers at God’s Voice Today. This is a wonderful community where we hold frequent prayer, fellowship and Bible study calls online and post encouragement, revelations and powerful testimonies to build up the body of Christ.

🔑 Make the commitment to keep Him as your firm foundation, NOT your emotions and anxieties/worries. Always remember that He who is in you is greater.

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” –Matthew 7:24-25

Write down areas you struggle in and look up verses to declare over yourself when the enemy tries to attack you. Morning declarations are essential.

For example, if you struggle with anxiety, declare 2 Timothy 1:7 over yourself, saying, “For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” If you have struggled with shame and condemnation, declare 2 Corinthians 5:17 over yourself, saying, “I am in Christ, I am a new creation; old things have passed away; all things have become new.”

🔑 Keep your eyes focused on Jesus, not the cares of this world. Stay focused on the straight path, don’t turn to the left or the right to mix with the world. As the famous hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” says, as you keep your eyes on Jesus, the world will grow strangely dim.

Take breaks during the day to read scripture and go for prayer walks. During your lunch breaks, read the Bible or listen to a sermon or an uplifting testimony. Listen to worship music during your commutes and when you are able to throughout the day.

🔑 Always have a heart of gratitude. Always rejoice in the Lord for all He has done in your life and will do. Thank Him continually and praise Him as you read His precious Word.

If you start to feel stress or worry creep into your mind, go take five minutes to thank the Lord for everything He’s done and is doing in your life. Read some Psalms to remind yourself of what an amazing God we serve. The Psalms are full of wonderful reminders, especially Psalms 34, 136 and 139.

🔑 Severely limit usage of social media. Only watch uplifting content that builds your faith, such as teachings, sermons and testimonies. Too much social media usage causes heightened anxiety, stress and depression.

Fast often from social media, especially if you recognize you have a “scrolling” problem. Unfollow or mute all people and pages who promote sin and negativity and don’t help you grow spiritually. If you need the extra accountability, place app timers on your phone so that if you exceed a specified time limit, the app is blocked for the remainder of the day.

🔑 Cut out all secular music and replace it with worship music. Some of my favorite worship songs are by CeCe Winans, Cross Worship and Hope Darst.

Secular music is not edifying to the Lord. The majority of it promotes sexual immorality, violence and witchcraft. Not to mention, a lot of secular musicians are operating in witchcraft with curses and spells put over the music. The enemy runs the secular music industry.

If you are struggling to break free from listening to secular music, do some research into what your favorite singers are into and carefully read the lyrics to their songs. Above all, ask the Lord for discernment before you listen to music and listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. –Philippians 4:8

🔑 Severely limit entertainment “to relax,” especially be careful of secular movies and TV. Fill your free time up with more reading and study of The Word. Stick to mainly watching uplifting faith-based content. Great American Pure Flix or TubiTV, the latter of which is free, are great places to start.

Guard your eye and ear gates from violence, horror movies, sexual immorality and profanity/abuse of God’s name. Ask the Lord for discernment over what you watch and don’t ignore conviction from the Holy Spirit. Even many seemingly innocent movies have witchcraft behind them and open doors to the enemy.

🔑 Listen to the Word continually. Whether it be through the audio Bible on the YouVersion Bible app (available on Android and iOS) and/or through sermons from Biblically-rooted pastors. I highly recommend Derek Prince, David Wilkerson and Leonard Ravenhill.

Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. –Proverbs 4:21-22

🔑 When your flesh is getting louder, fast. Develop a lifestyle of fasting, and fast as the Lord leads you. Start with intermittent fasting (one meal/day) for a determined period of time.

Fast from food and all distractions (e.g., movies/TV, social media). Re-focus on the Lord and ask for His strength. Remind yourself that it is by His strength, not your own.

 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. –Ephesians 3:20-21

I pray that this post blesses you and helps you strengthen your walk with the Lord. Until next time, shalom (peace be with you) to my brothers and sisters in Christ.