Michelle Renee Speaks

I can hear the audible sigh already. New year resolutions – why bother?   Here’s the thing… often we trip over them because of our internal baggage. We start out with good intentions, only to end up in self-sabotage. • We want to be gentler on ourselves, but continue with negative self-talk We want to start (fill in the blank), but have no plan • We want to change a behavior, but don’t deal with underlying, contributing emotional issues • We want to get out of debt, but don't really want to do what it takes • We want to take steps towards a goal or a dream, but allow fear to hold us back   What if we made our internal lives a priority this year? What if we focused on what we can do to build our character and energize our spirits instead of yearly external resolutions?  A rich internal life makes us a better, more mature person.  After all, everything trickles down from our inner lives anyway. This is why God makes the “heart” a priority - for all attitud...

Why is weekly worship with a local body of believers important? If we profess to be Christ-followers, we practice the teachings of God’s Word and follow the example brought to us by Jesus himself. This includes worshipping in unity, as one body, on a regular basis. But why corporate worship? Can’t we worship God the way we feel most comfortable by ourselves? And what’s with all the singing? The answer? As others have done, I could fill an entire book and reference all the scriptures (there are many) to prove that God commands us to worship, we were created to worship Him and in the end, all will worship Him (willing or not). For the sake of brevity, I’ll address a portion of the question here – a question I’ve been asked many times throughout my ministry. We endeavor to pare everything down to a few strategic elements in our worship services, encouraging believers to participate fully in this worship process – worship through song, prayer, giving and hearing of the Word of G...

I was driving home the other day, heading East just about the time the sun was going down behind me.  Rolling hills, music playing, little traffic.  Nice and relaxing. Until the setting sun just about blinded me in the rearview mirror. Blinking from seeing spots, I flipped the mirror up and tried to get back to my relaxing drive home. Not so fast. God had something to say. As I glanced back up to the rearview mirror, I noticed the strange pattern of shadows it was creating from the reflection of the sun. I had to squint to see any kind of detail. All the rolling hills behind me were now cast in various shades of shadow.  I couldn't clearly make out much of anything, and the beauty I was beholding a few minutes before had now turned to ominous shifting patterns of grey. In true form, I took notice and began to ponder how with one flip of a switch everything took on such a drastically different appearance. I use this function at night all th...

Being at peace with everyone seems impossible and at the very least, improbable. It hurts to not feel at peace with everyone, because we want to be liked (and drama free) right? It doesn't feel good when relationships go badly.  But this goes deeper than being liked or eliminating drama. It's about growing into mature people of God.  That's why Paul, in Romans 12:18 encourages us to ... do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody.   This is actually encouraging to me, because I may honestly do everything I feel is humanly possible, but still not achieve resolution- or even reconciliation in some cases.  Unfortunately these things aren't always possible, but a transformation of our own hearts and the practice of maturing as a peacemaker is... ...because we can only control ourselves and our behavior,  no matter what the other person does. (insert big sigh here. Okay 2 big sighs)  There's a big difference ...