Have Courage

 John 16:33

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." 

It's funny to me how quickly you can lose heart, or how you can learn something or at least think you have and then find yourself a month later saying..'now what was that again..?' When I started painting, it wasn't something I had been taught and it wasn't laid out for me.  I didn't paint by numbers.  It was just a blank canvas and a endless possibility of colors and subjects. I could either choose to pull them out of my imagination and try to represent on them on canvas in the best way possible or I could sit there in fear of not doing something right or in some way fail at it.  It isn't until after I start painting that things come together.  I sit in my quiet place of painting and mull things over, while I talk to God about them and paint.  Every moment isn't always perfect, because there are times when I come to a certain place in a painting and I think 'God, this is gonna be really hard to paint'...and sometimes I have to sit there a bit or take a break to kind of work up my courage.  Finally, after I do finish an artwork, I am always left standing back thinking how did I help accomplish this.  It's because of God I know.  That  is why I say His creation inspires me, literally to the very core (due to the fact that I am His creation).  That's where the power of Christ is.  It's in the realizing that because Christ's spirit is in me, I can remember that I was created to be a daughter of God.  That I am HIS creation and there is power in that because you realize your worth something.  You have something inside of you that is so much more than what you ever expected.  That's why when a painting comes from my hands and I stand back and look at it.  I feel like I have overcome something, because my fears of failure have been stomped on. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." Our tribulations may include fear or rejection, but when we realize that Christ overcame the world, how can we not?  

  I want to encourage you as I encourage myself (because I could use this lesson in all areas of life, not just painting).  Take courage, because Christ is in you.   Not only are you God's creation, but a part of his very Spirit resides in you.  A portion of a Holy, Eternal, Powerful, Magnificent, and Awesome God resides within your very body.