5 practical ways to rekindle your relationship with God

1. Tell yourself your testimony.

You are literally not the same person anymore. You were born again when you gave your life to Christ.

Still, even as new creations, we make mistakes. (Hence, Christian. Direct translation = I need Jesus.) But, everything we've ever experienced is going to glorify God as we pour into the lives of others.

So if we just messed up two weeks ago (or two hours) we can thank God for protecting us and for never withholding His perfect love. Reflecting on what the Lord saved us from is a sure way to fall in love with Him over and over again. 

I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and
Your truth from the great assembly. [Psalm 40:10 NKJV]

2. Just start talking.

God is standing at the door waiting for us to let Him in.

Starting a conversation with God is as simple as saying, "I need you right now." Then tell God exactly what is on your mind, and ask that His word and His Spirit direct your life.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [Romans 8:26 NKJV]

3. Go to church.

Some of us don't go to church every week. News flash: that's not right.

Don't believe the "doctrine" that says we don't need church.

Because, well...

As tempting and seductive (reach?) as the message sounds, God clearly instructed us to attend church regularly. Besides, it is a blessing that we even have the privilege to freely praise Jesus. Some people die...just to say "Amen."

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. [Hebrews 10:24-25]

4. Scratch the old ways.

They weren't working anyway.

 If you’ve only met your goal, to pray daily at 6:00am, once in the last month, maybe it's not realistic for you. Maybe you should...pray at 8?

Sometimes our routines with God become a little religious and our time with Him is just another thing we can check off the list. Christ's love is so powerfully transformational and inconceivably unconditional that it should always dominate as the driving force of our entire life. Anything less is settling and completely selling ourselves short.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!” [Lamentations 3:22-24]

5. Challenge yourself.

Whether it's getting a certain grade in a class, giving your job your undivided attention for a full day's work, or taking your kids to the park - there is something that challenges you.

Set out to do something that will demand you to rely on God's grace. Step out on faith and expect God to catch you.

He always will.

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”[Deuteronomy 31:6]

How do you rekindle your relationship with Jesus?


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The biblical impact of music + $100 giveaway: An interview with J.Monty

When I stumbled upon this viral video with over 2.4 MILLION views (about 1 million at the time,) I immediately became a J.Monty fan. I bought his album shortly after and let's just say...R.I.P to the assignment I was working on that night. I was able to talk to J. Monty and ask him about his new album, Second Born. Below is part two of the conversation. If you missed part one, check it out here. *Naturally, it wouldn't be HollyLooYa if I don't include some of my reactions as well. (see: between paragraphs)

Holly: I read somewhere that the video for 100 bars pt. 3 took over a year to make and you had to drive to Massachusetts from Atlanta, you must've been extremely tired.

Holly: How did you know the specific vision for the video was worth holding onto?

J. Monty: [Laughs] I didn’t know. There were plenty of times that I wanted to just give up. I actually grew completely sick of the concept. When it first came to me it was fresh I was like, “Oh my goodness, people need to hear this!” But a few months in, a few checks gone all the way to Massachusetts...I’ll never see em again. All of the thousands of dollars spent, all of the pain that me and my wife went through, I was like, "this isn’t even worth it." I wanted to give up. It was God who would not let me throw in the towel. He kept reminding me, He kept waking me up with that conviction in my Spirit, but I wanted to give up a long time ago. So, I didn’t know. That’s my answer.

Holly: I read that “Second Born” is about being born again, not about being the second born child in the family line necessarily. Are you the second born?

J.Monty: Yeah, I’m the second  born. So it works both ways.

H: Name something notable in your everyday life that has changed since you were born again?

J: Something that I noticed, that’s notable everyday, is actually...conviction. I feel convicted about things that before I was born again, I could care less about. I would do certain things, I would have certain thoughts and I would just be happy doing whatever I wanted to do. As everyone knows, there is temptation everywhere, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been saved, nobody’s perfect. But since I’ve been saved, I actually have convictions now and I actually feel bad if my heart wants to go a certain way, if my heart wants to stray. And there was time when that stuff just did not matter to me. So probably conviction of my sin. Or an awareness of my sin for that matter.

H: As a musician, do you have any insight or revelation on why music has such a strong impact on us?

J: I wish I had a bit more insight on it. But I will say this much, music, even psychologically, is just proven to have a deep impact on people. There are people who are like vegetables, they are almost brain dead and they’re in rehab, for example, trying to build themselves up. And they can’t talk, they can’t move, they can’t do anything. But if you play a certain song from their childhood, they know all the words. They can’t remember their own name, they can’t remember their own children, they can’t remember anything. Like people with Alzheimer's can’t remember their own children or their own name, but if you just play a song that meant a lot to them, play their favorite song, they can sing along right with you. Music is a lot more powerful than I think people want to recognize. And it’s easy for people to just kind of gloss over it and be like “music ain’t powerful, it’s all about the beats.” Because honestly music has transitioned to a plastic place where cats get in the studio and don’t even write stuff they just get behind the mic and young thug it out. And it’s just super simple so people are like “nah man music doesn’t do all of that” but really it does, it’s extremely powerful. When you think about the fact that David was able to chase Saul's demons away by playing the harp. He would literally be able to shake those demons out of Saul, who would be in a trance and wanted to harm David, just by playing a song. Music is extremely powerful, it has really, really deep spiritual connections.

Babies start showing signs in the womb if you play a song and put headphones up to their mom’s stomach, they start getting excited. Music connects with infants who are oblivious to what is going on in the world, music is just something that connects with all human beings. I think at the end of the day, it is as at the core of our very being. I think it is a part of our DNA, like it’s just embedded in all of us and that’s why it’s one of the most powerful industries in the world, because that’s something that everybody needs. Nobody can say that they don’t listen or need some kind of music.

J. Monty is an up and coming Christian Hip-Hop artist out of Atlanta, Ga.

known for his versatility, lyrical ability, and insane flow.

Second Born can be found on:

iTunes
Amazon
Google Play

I love the album so much that I am giving away a copy. And in honor of 100 Bars I'm giving away $100 to Dunkin Donuts. Enter the giveaway below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How does God reveal His word to you? (An interview with J.Monty)

When I stumbled upon this viral video with over 2.3 MILLION views (about 1 million at the time,) I immediately became a J.Monty fan. I bought his album shortly after and let's just say...R.I.P to the assignment I was working on that night.

I was able to talk to J. Monty and ask him about his new album, Second Born. Below is part one of the conversation. Stay tuned for more topics later this week.

*Naturally, it wouldn't be HollyLooYa if I don't include some of my reactions as well. (see: between paragraphs)

Holly: How does God reveal His word to you? And how do you know what to share through music?

J.Monty: I would say it varies. There have been times where I have gone to sleep and woken up with an entire song in my Spirit. And it’s literally laid out for me, the only thing I gotta do is make it rhyme.

But there’s also been times where I have to sit down and I have to plan out what I want to say. And I just start writing and then it just starts kinda coming to me. But every song is not like deposited into my spirit. I think God gives me the creative space and the liberty to sometimes just write what I’m feeling or write what I’m going through at the time to relate to other people and just to kinda be human.

Obviously Jesus left a place of glory. He came to earth so that He could identify with human beings and then rise again, eventually, to intercede on our behalf. He couldn’t intercede without being able to relate. So I think sometimes God does want us to just have a human experience and write what we’re going through. He doesn’t really interfere with that.

Sometimes He gives me the liberty to just do what I been doing and I been writing for 12 years. I think he can kinda...kinda trust me a little bit with the pen. [laughs]

But again there are times like with 100 Bars pt. 3. Obviously, the latter half of the song, the two last verses, came from a deep place of prayer and tears, seeing the state of a lot of hip hop artists blaspheming the Lord and coming against and oppressing the church. It just really really burdened me because I saw very, very clearly how the influence of the body of Christ was being, in a sense, kind of stripped away from us. Legally politically, artistically, every way you could think of, the influence of the body of Christ was being stripped away.

And I’m an artist, so my first intention is to make sure that I can do whatever I can in my position to see to it that my God is revered and is feared. So I prayed and I asked God and he started to reveal to me in His scripture what was happening. And that's how I came up with the concept of the connection between Satan being a musician and going from heaven to Earth after likening himself to God- and artists doing the same exact thing on Earth, likening themselves to God, but leading humans from one place to a lower place of separation.

So it just really hit me and connected. A lot of it is just deep prayer, it comes from a place of deep burden, a deep concern for the state of our world, our country and the surrounding countries. Sometimes I go to sleep, wake up and it’s like, “Oh, I know what I need to do today.” [laughs]

J. Monty is an up and coming Christian Hip-Hop artist out of Atlanta, Ga.

known for his versatility, lyrical ability, and insane flow.

Second Born can be found on:

iTunes
Amazon
Google Play

I love the album so much that I am giving away a copy. And in honor of 100 Bars I'm giving away $100 to Dunkin Donuts. Enter the giveaway below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway