How many of us struggle with self-worth? If we were sitting in a classroom and the teacher asked us that question, who would be brave enough to raise our hand first? It’s not easy to admit that we have flaws, but the first step to overcoming them is to admit that they are there. Look deep within yourself. What are the things you struggle with the most? Those hidden things that no one knows about. I recently began to write a letter to God about how I am struggling with feeling as though my best effort isn’t good enough. That’s a terrible feeling. Living day to day wondering if you’re getting it right, but knowing that you are not. That’s where Jesus steps in. He gave God His best so that we could have a chance to give God our best. Because of Jesus, we have nothing to prove other than that we love God. The thing is, we can’t show God that we love Him through lip service, we show Him by living like we say that we love Him. The Lord calls us to a life of purity, free from the restraints of sin. In order to do that, we must put away our fleshly lusts, and walk in the true way of the Spirit. It is so easy to say that we love God with our mouths, but our lives tell a different story. We give in to this world by following it, but then think that one day of praising God is enough to atone for all our sins committed throughout the week. When do we stop playing church, and starting being the church? When do we allow Jesus to metaphorically wreak havoc upon our hearts, and clean out our temples like He did at the temple in Jerusalem? That’s the only way we’ll truly be clean. Those things that are lurking in the back of our minds, the things that we hide from everyone else, those are the very things that the enemy will use to condemn us, or use to hurt the ones that we love. We must truly, truly confess everything to God, and allow Him to heal us completely.

            When was the last time you had a real talk with God? A talk where you were asking Him what He wanted you to do, and not just what you can get from Him. We all have developed a cycle of seeking God only when it’s convenient for us. How many friends have you lost in the past because you were tired of being used by them. You know, those friends that only called when they needed something. God is tired of us using Him as well. God’s Word has not changed. It clearly tells us to “seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of Heaven and all His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Nowhere does it say to seek these things and His righteousness will be added. We’re all out of order. I heard someone say before, that we are always seeking the hand of God and never His face. We have to break that chain. Tradition is sometimes wrong. Ask the Lord to change your heart, ask Him to change your name. Ask Him to change your identity. To give you a zeal to seek Him and not just His riches. Our self-worth is not found in money, houses, family or even our spouses. Our self-worth is found in God. He thought that we were worth the price of His Son’s blood. How many people do we know that would die for our sins? Jesus is proof enough to know that we are worth more than anything this world could offer us. Start believing that you are more valuable than rubies, Jesus did. Then start living like it. Honor His sacrifice, by honoring His commandments. Jesus paved the way so that you could be saved. Declare over your life that God loves you, then believe it in your heart. I promise you’ll see a change. Remember these words,

  2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold all things are become new.” 

Yours in Christ,
Erica J Hill
 © Grace Built This Creations 2015
gracebuiltthis@outlook.com
gracebuiltthiscreations.blogspot.com

I first developed a love for crafting when I decided to design and create my wedding invitatations. I know, I know, we've all heard this story, but it's true see,

I really enjoyed making and sending out these invivtations.

But I always knew that I had a passion for crafts, because when I was younger, I would make candy vases, gift baskets, and I would crochet. So it was only fitting that I would have a love for making beautiful cards and other gifts to make people smile.

After making the wedding invitations, I had been hit by the bug 😍. And I just wanted to make and make and make some more.

I wanted to share with you all some of my first creations today.

I created a few of these just for fun, but others were created for Coworkers. I hope you enjoyed looking. Thanks again for checking out this blog. If anyone would like to order, you can email me at gracebuiltthis@outlook.com and we'll discuss pricing and shipping of you aren't local.

Yours in Christ 😃
Erica J Hill

Hello everyone. Today I'm posting a project that I did for a Co worker who wanted something for her Pastor and his wife. I named the post "To One Fabulous First Lady" because of what the card says. I just love that expression. It's great to be and feel like a Fabulous Woman of God 😄

For the Pastor's card, I did a step card with a poem honoring him as a Shepherd for the Lord. I think it turned out wonderfully for my first step card. And I'm excited to share with you all. Again, if anyone wants to order this card, then email me at gracebuiltthis@outlook.com  and we'll talk pricing and shipping if you aren't near me. Thanks for looking!!

Yours in Christ 😃
Erica J Hill

My Pastor's wife, Evangelist Geraldine Davis, and my sister, Prophetess Darlene Calhoun hosted separate Women's Conferences back in June and asked me to make some gift bags to give to their speakers. I was very pleased with the outcome of both sets of bags with matching cards and am very thankful for the opportunity to create for them. If anyone would like to place an order, then email me at gracebuiltthis@outlook.com and we'll work discuss pricing, shipping etc. Thanks for looking!!

Yours in Christ ,
Erica J Hill

 ^<This set went to my sister.

 ^<This set went to my Elect Lady.

 Close ups of the different sets.

 

Hello everyone. I do apologize for the length of time that I have been absent from my blog, and I must make more time to get some posts up and soon. I have a lot of projects that have been finished and are just waiting for me to share. On the first Sunday in July, we had an appreciation ceremony for our musician at the church. We had an awesome time celebrating the work that she does for the God we serve. I love this woman to pieces, and am grateful to have her in our lives. ♡

I was searching for a unique gift that I could give her that I knew would make her smile and so I hit the crafting world and came up with this beautiful mini piano. I love love love it. I made a trial version but I must say that I love this one much more. If anyone would like one made for someone special, I would be more that happy to make one, just email me and we will iron everything out. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did.

Yours in Christ 😃
Erica J Hill

Galatians 5:16-26

      How many of us recognise that sin is a spirit that can minister to us? And if allowed to, it could minister death to our souls. Lying is a spirit, stealing is a spirit, fornication is a spirit, adultery is a spirit, homosexuality is a spirit, in essence, anything that is not not like God is the "Dead Fruit of Sin". When we go back to the beginning to when the first sin occured, we will see that Eve was ministered to by the serpent. When her mind became open to the possibility of obeying or disobeying God, she chose to disobey Him and then ministered the same idea of disobedience to Adam, and he sinned too. Thus sin and disobedience are the same.

       We all have a choice to either obey or disobey. Sin or not to sin. Think back over your life, everything bad that you did, did you think about it first? A lot of the things that I have done in my past, I can guarantee that the thought was on my mind well before the action was carried out. I plotted then executed. More times than not, we all have done this. I'm here to tell you that this is the spirit of sin. It's always there trying to minister disobedience to our minds and hearts.

    Galatians 5:19-21 gives us a list of fleshly deeds that will keeps us from going to Heaven. All of these things come from the spirit of sin. The Word tells us to bring all our thoughts under subjection to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). This means that any negative thinking needs to be cast out and replaced with thoughts that glorify the Lord. The latter part of Galatians 5 gives us the Fruit of the Spirit of God, which ministers life to us. 

    When preparing for battle, the officers in command will draw up a strategy that they believe will help defeat their enemy. They'll send out scouts to find weak spots and other information, they will look at maps of the area to determine the best point of attack. They'll get advice from their most trusted leaders, and they realise that they are only as strong as their weakest soldier. So they train them for combat, instilling discipline, courage and love for the brotherhood, and teaching them that there is strength in unity.
    We have to be the same in Spiritual Warfare. The enemy is drawing up battle plans according to the maps of our minds. He studies our weaknesses and our past failures because he knows that the way to winning this war is to subdue our minds. He'll feed thoughts of discouragment, self-hate, depression, and all manner of things to create strongholds on our minds, then sin steps in and ministers to our spirits to act on those thoughts. So, we must become proactive in this fight, not reactive. We must use prayer to communicate with God, building up a store room of protection, so that when the enemy attacks, we'll be strengthened for the battle that's being proactive. If we wait until the enemy attacks before we reach out to God, then we set ourselves up to fail.
    The Bible is our map in more ways that one. It allows us to seenwhere the enemy plans to attack, then gives us the Living Word to push him back. We should use the Holy Spirit as our Spiritual Advisor to help call scripture to our remembrance when we are under attack. Our flesh, being the weakest member of the team, should be disciplined to withstand temptation. And we must unify ourselves within the Body of Christ. Once we are able to start recognizing the attack of the enemy, we will know what to seek God for in preparation for battle.      
     I truly believe that the thoughts we feed the most will be the thoughts that win. If we feed sinful thoughts, then sin will win. Sin ministers to our spirits to keep us out of the Will of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Feed the positive thoughts that will give you life. Submitting our lives to Jesus , means that we receive life eternally. When we receive the Holy Spirit, the Fruit of the Spirit has been planted in our hearts, but its up to us to give sunlight and water to those seeds. So my question today is, which spirit will you feed?

 Yours in Christ

©Erica Hill
gracebuiltthis@outlook.com
gracebuiltthiscreations.blogspot.com

        I’ve been searching for the biblical meaning of the word “faint”, and I have come across scriptures that talk of “fainting”, but they also offer comfort in knowing that God is always there, if we hold on. The definition of faint is to become weak or dizzy; close to losing consciousness. It also means not clearly seen or felt. Sometimes when we lose sight of God, we feel a ‘faint’ touch, but it seems as though it’s not enough for us to know that He’s there, so we feel ‘faint’ at that time. The bible tells us in Isaiah 40:29 that “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might; He increaseth strength.” I delight in this promise because the scripture tells me that He is always there. It goes on to say in verse 31 “but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” The keyword is shall. It doesn’t say maybe or could or probably. The promise is that we shall. That waiting on the Lord not only keeps us from fainting, but there’s a constant renewal of strength in times when we feel like giving up. In a world filled with uncertainty, it feels great to be rooted and anchored in the Lord. To know that being able to access Him through prayer and seeking His face constantly, should give us more reason to do so. I know what it feels like to be empty because I walked without God. It hurts. Then one day, I listened to a song and the singer quoted Psalm 27:13, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” And I often wondered what that meant so I set out to learn. I wanted to grow closer to God so that I wouldn’t faint. Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strength thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord.” Another promise. Promises to keep us strengthened if we trust in the Lord. Trusting God’s plan is more important than anything else we can do. Once, I worked in a daycare and I had a conversation with my boss, Ms Fran, about God, and she told me that she trusts God because she has nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Because if she dies believing in God, and nothing happens, then nothing happens, but if she dies not believing in His Word, living His Word, and it turned out that He is real, then she would go to hell, and that’s not an option. So she lives her life trusting and believing in God’s Word. I took that with me, because I honestly believe that trusting and believing in God is far better than not having anything to live for. Galatians 6:9 “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” This is yet more comfort in knowing that if we come out of living in the world and live for God, then our living won’t be in vain. Because if we live contrary to God’s Word, then we will lose our souls. There is no destiny, nothing to look forward to outside of God. This world is becoming more and more dark every day.
           I recognized today that the Holy Spirit is urging us to not give up when the term “faint” is used. But the first step is to acknowledge that we need God in every aspect of our lives. Building a foundation with Christ requires us to communicate with Him daily through prayer, the reading of His Word, worshipping Him, and fasting. Coming to God is not as hard as we make it seem. Sometimes we may not understand things, but it’s not for us to understand God’s ways, we just need to trust Him. So don’t give up on your dreams just because you don’t see things happening according to your schedule. Trust God. When His timing and season for your life aligns, then everything will fall into place. Now, I’ll leave you with this, Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”

Yours in Christ

 Erica J Hill

© gracebuiltthis@outlook.com
gracebuiltthiscreations.blogspot.com