Loyalty to God, Self-Love, and the Journey to Authenticity

When life tosses us into tumultuous waters, it's the anchor of loyalty to God that steadies our ship. I, Shaniqua, reveal the strength found in unwavering faith through my own life's tempests, inviting you to consider the mighty hand of God in your story. We'll explore the essence of devotion amid life's competing priorities and how to keep your spiritual compass pointed towards divine guidance, even when the horizon seems unclear. It's a candid reflection on the beauty of God's plan and the role of remembrance in bolstering our present faith.

This episode is also a heartfelt call to shed the masks we wear and embrace the healing power of self-love. By recounting the steps I took towards authenticity, I aim to inspire you to prioritize your well-being, understanding that self-care radiates outwards, touching the lives of everyone we hold dear. I'll leave you with a profound takeaway: as we walk into the new week, let's intertwine our loyalty to God with the embrace of self, discovering that these twin blessings pave the path to stability and joy. Join me on this journey of faith, healing, and self-acceptance, as we seek to grow spiritually and personally, together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Free Concepts Unmasked, where we motivate, educate and elevate. I am your host, shaniqua. Thank you so very much for tuning in, so grateful to you all, thank you, thank you, thank you, guys. Our topic today is going to be loyalty Loyalty. Before we begin, as always, I'm going to start off with prayer.

Speaker 1: 0:27

Father God, in the name of Jesus, god, I come to you, lord, and I say thank you God. Thank you, god, for all that you have done, all that you're doing, God. We thank you for the lessons that turn into blessings, god. We thank you, god, for the seasons that we're in. That brings us knowledge and wisdom. Father God, experience. God is the greatest teacher ever. God, we just thank you, god, for our lessons. We thank you, god, for the tests that turn into testimonies, god. I thank you, father God, for this platform, god, to be able to talk to your people. God, I'm so grateful and honored. God, thank you for your grace, thank you for your mercy, your forgiveness and, most of all, thank you for your love, god, god, there's so much that you've done, Father God, if we look back in our lives in the past, god, what you brought us through. God, I ask, father God, that you remind our listeners, god, remind them of who you are and where you brought them from. I ask that you open their hearts, have an open mind, god, to be able to receive whatever it is that you have for them. God, god, I ask, father, god, that you increase yourself within me, god, to give me the words that you want me to say. God, not my words, but your words. God, not my will, but yours, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Guys, listen, I was thinking, and please forgive me because I had a lot going on. Last week we had a fire in the building that I live in and didn't have any power or water for a few days. So it's been rough, but I'm here, nothing but God, nothing but the grace of God. Y'all, I'm here. I had a rough week too. It worked. So, listen, y'all know, y'all know how it is. We got our good days and not so good days I won't even call them bad days but in the meantime, we got to keep pushing through. That's what it's all about having faith and hope and knowing that our cloudy days will definitely turn into sunny days.

Speaker 1: 2:37

So, listen, I was thinking about loyalty, the word loyalty, commitment, and If you think about, just think for a moment how we are loyal to people and relationships friends, family. We're loyal to our jobs, our careers. We're even loyal to sports teams, celebrities. We're just loyal and committed to so many different things. And what I thought about was how is it that people are not loyal to their creator, which is God? This is what I believe, anyway that God created us and my loyalty is with Him.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Now, I know there are some times that a lot of people don't understand the seasons that they're in and they're having such a hard time. They're struggling and they're seeing things they didn't think that they would see, or they go through things they didn't think that they would ever go through, that maybe it was beneath them or above them, whatever the situation is. But sometimes when you're going through something, you don't understand why you're going through it and sometimes, often, we end up getting angry or upset with God because things didn't work out the way we wanted it to work out or the way that we plan and where we got to remember that it's not your plan, it's not your will, but it's ultimately God's will for your life. We have purpose here and for whatever that reason is, and our purpose is that God is going to make sure he sees us through it and we have to believe that and have faith and know that. So last time when I talked to you guys, I was thinking about the past and what God had brought you through, whether you said, lord, please give me out of this relationship, lord, please give me out this marriage. God, this job is stressing me out, I need to go. Maybe your bills, you were overwhelmed and some money came in that you didn't even know was going to come in, or somebody blessed you. There's so many different ways that God blesses us and he answers our prayers and we just thank God after it's over, like, oh, thank God, you know that's done, you know, or God, you came through.

Speaker 1: 5:18

But sometimes those seasons last a little bit longer than what we expected and we get. I guess we have fear. Sometimes we feel uneasy about whatever circumstance it is that we're going through. We start having doubt and doubting God, and I wanted you to remember the times that you did go through things and how God brought you through it. Whether it was a child that was sick and you prayed to God, you know, for their health, or if it was a family member or something I know there's things that you have to think about when you think back what God had brought you through and times you, like I said on the last episode, when your back is against the wall, when you just don't see a way out. They got to make a way out of no way. So it really it's.

Speaker 1: 6:20

It's crazy to me that we're so loyal to so many people and things and in this world, but we're, we don't a lot of us, not everybody, but a lot of us, a lot of us sometimes will often not be faithful to God, having faith and he's the most faithful, and we're not loyal. Soon as things, like I said, don't go our way, we want to dismiss God or not talk to him, because you know, kind of like a kid, you know, if they don't get their way, well, I don't want to talk to you and sometimes you know we're human and we don't want to talk to God. But I wanted to encourage you to always keep the lines of communication open with God, because it's not about going to church. Church is the fellowship and, yes, get the word. But it's really important that you have your own personal relationship with God. I know for me, I couldn't have done it without him. It's been so many times.

Speaker 1: 7:27

God, guys, y'all, if y'all really knew my whole complete story, from a child until almost 50 years old. I have so many testimonies. I have so much that I've been through it's. It's not really nothing I haven't been through, and when I look back over my life of what God has brought me through and the miracles and this time I shouldn't even be here that I have been in accidents and things have happened and just by the grace of God and just not giving up on him, and now it was times back in the day I will be honest that when my grandmother passed, I didn't understand why God had taken my grandmother, and I was about 13 years old and I didn't get it. I didn't understand, and I know many of you probably don't understand.

Speaker 1: 8:20

You know why your parents were taken, or your grandmother, or you know, just a loved one or maybe not understanding a relationship that you've gotten into that maybe, um, like the domestic violence or abuse or anything that you've been through that you Deemed to be bad, but you have to know that god will turn Whatever it seems like is bad into your good, whatever is good for you, and I didn't understand it many years ago. But now that I look back over my life, pushing through All the obstacles that came my way, that I really believe that god was with me, and in those darkest moments and when I felt like I just couldn't make it anymore, or if I felt so overwhelmed and exhausted or had depression or anxiety, it was times that I just didn't know what the outcome was. But I just knew within my spirit that god had a plan, that this wasn't the end, and so, for whoever's listening, I want you to know this is not the end. This is just the beginning. You are not starting from scratch. You might be starting over in certain instances of your life, but you're not starting from scratch.

Speaker 1: 9:42

God has already built the foundation and he already knows what it is that you need. He already knows where he's taking you, but sometimes he has to reposition us. He has to reposition us, and whatever that moment or season is, because sometimes we can't be or god can't take us to where he needs us to be, because we're still stuck in the past or we're still stuck in the same Character that we used to be. We still are acting the same Childish Petty, whatever it is, but when he takes us to next levels and higher levels. Then there has to be lessons that were learned in the previous season that we went through.

Speaker 1: 10:32

We have to handle things differently. We have to have self-discipline when you don't just be snapping off on people just because you don't like what they say. Some people, you know, honestly, the truth hurts and we Snap at people because they are being honest and sometimes we have to receive the honesty that people give us. Now I'm not talking about hate or jealousy, but I'm talking about people that really love us and try to give us a word of wisdom. A lot of times we don't want to listen, but I ask that you take heed to what people say. Don't be snapping off on. People Get mad because a lot of people think that it's a weakness if you don't say anything back to someone that's yelling at you or disrespecting you. You know you choose your battles, but I don't have to prove anything to anyone and you don't have to prove anything to anyone that you know I can argue better than you, you know, or I can put you in your place. I mean, at the end of the day, then, what they say, something you smart, you custom out and at the end of the day, what? What have you gained from that?

Speaker 1: 11:50

For me, I know personally, when people get me to that point and I have to Fuss them out or cuss them out, I don't feel good about it. I feel convicted later on and it doesn't make me feel good because, at the end of the day, I'm not here to tear people down. I'm here to uplift people and support people and help people be the best version of themselves they can be. I want to encourage people. I don't want to break anyone down or tear anyone down or kick people when they're down. So I want you to know that, whatever it is that you're going through, be loyal, have faith, be faithful and know that God is doing something in you and sometimes he's got to break us down to rebuild us into who he needs us to be, because Life or the world has started to change us Into someone that he didn't create us to be. So he has to take some of those layers off of us that we've gained from bad experiences or whatever it is we've been through. He's trying to take those layers off and recreate the person that he needs us to be for our purpose. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Speaker 1: 13:17

It was some, you know, thinking I had going on, you know, didn't hurt myself too bad with all their thinking, but just wondering how we're so loyal and committed to people. You know, like even friends, some of our friends will let us down. People will let you down. That's just life. People are gonna let you down. But when people let us down, we forgive them and we carry on because we love them, whatever you know. But with God it's like if he doesn't bless us right when we want him to bless us, we get attitude and throw a temper tantrum, Mad at the world, angry at him. Well, god didn't do this for me, he didn't do that. It's like when God blesses us, it seems like sometimes we forget the blessing that he blessed us with and then we start complaining about the very thing that we pray for and he blessed us with, you know.

Speaker 1: 14:19

So listen, take a long look at yourself, start to love yourself, go through the spiritual journey, self-care, finding you being the best version of you you can be. If you're negative and you got a stank attitude all the time and you're always angry at the world and and hate everything, then you need to check your spirit, because that's not of God. God wants you to have joy, laughter, love and all the great things that he expected for your life. But when we go through this world, we have some bad experiences that come along with living life, which is it's, it's, you know. I mean you can't get past with just being perfect and nothing going on or going wrong, because if everything was perfect, when would you learn? If you didn't make mistakes, how would you learn? And I don't want to be no boring, boring world where we all perfect and we all the same.

Speaker 1: 15:28

God created you unique. He created you different. Don't let people steal your joy. Don't let people take you away from the very thing that God blessed you with know who you are, know that God loves you, stand tall, lift your head up, walk straight and know that I love you, god loves you and you have more in you than you can ever imagine the strength in you the God has placed in you. You're stronger than what you think.

Speaker 1: 16:10

So sometimes if you got a cry and let it out, let it out, let it go. But then, when you finish, wipe those tears because we need growth. So those tears to be able to help us grow, we got to release those tears because you can't hold it all in, because this easy is going to end up causing disease and we don't want that. You don't want that. So I want you to be free of all of the negativity, be free of the past so that you can walk into your bright future that God has appointed for you. So if you have any thoughts, any comments or even any prayer requests or anything that you need, just definitely email me at free concepts podcast at gmailcom.

Speaker 1: 17:00

I just wanted to put that bug in your ear. Don't give up. Just know that your breakthrough is right around the corner. God is preparing you. I know sometimes it don't feel good and it don't look good. Trust me, I know Been there, done that. Trust me, I feel you. But just know that, whatever it is right now that you're going through, when you come up out of this that you can look back and say you know what I see, god, what you were doing in my life in that time, in that moment, what you were trying to teach me.

Speaker 1: 17:34

Sometimes, you know, our lessons hurt. They hurt our feelings. You know we're upset about how things go. Sometimes we find ourselves alone because we got to disconnect from people that were bringing us down or dragging us down and full of negativity. But this is a new season, the season of healing and restoration. God wants to restore you. God wants to heal you. Heal the old wounds so that you can walk into a healthier, better, magnificent life that he has prepared for you.

Speaker 1: 18:09

So never give up. Be true to you and unmask. It's okay. Unmask, you don't have to wear the mask all the time. You don't have to wear the smile all the time if you don't feel like it. But I need you to be able to unmask and stop trying to be what everybody else expects you to be for them and finally stand up and be who you need to be for you, because you're most important. Because guess what, baby, if you ain't right ain't nothing gonna be right around you. If you're not doing good, then your kids ain't gonna be doing good, your family's not gonna do good. People depend on you, but first you have to take care of you. Self-love, self-care. Thank you, guys, so much for listening. I hope you have a beautiful, wonderful week Again. Loyalty, just think about it. God bless you.