“Who Am I To Say” – Song To Encourage Single Ladies by Kim Brooks

December 13, 2011 The song, Who Am I To Say, tells the story of a single woman who’s been believing God for a mate for a while and feel God has forgotten about her heart’s desire.  “I really loved the song you sang. The words were phenomenal! I really identified with lyrics,” says Lynn who heard the song’s debut at Kim’s Gospel Speed Dating Event earlier this year.  “Its message is about learning contentment during this season of singleness in one’s life,” says Kim.

Feeling Lonely this Christmas?  Allow this song to ENCOURAGE YOU!

Watch Video of Song:

Available on CD Baby, iTunes, or Amazon MP3
You can also download it now on http://www.kimontheweb.com/music

With this song as the lead single, proceeds from downloads will go toward the completion of full Gospel CD filled with songs written by Kim that will encourage and minister to single women (the first ever full-length CD of its kind!)

If this blessed you, please share with single friends who may need a boost of encouragement and a reminder of God’s love this Christmas.

Even if they appear fine on the outside -- send them this email anyway!

As Always, be and STAY encouraged! -- especially during the holidays.

Kim Brooks, author of, How To Date and Stay Saved, and, He's Fine...But is He Saved? www.kimontheweb.com

Endure!

All throughout the Bible, the terms “endure” and “endurance” are stressed.

The Word admonishes us, as believers, to endure hardness, or hardships as good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3). It also speaks of how Jesus, Himself, endured the cross while despising the shame and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

As a single believer, you must also endure.

You endure as you walk in patience while holding fast to your own desires in your heart. (Psalms 37:4)

Another word for patience is endurance, so endure temptation, endure those times you feel you just want to get it on like Marvin Gaye, endure feelings of loneliness while remembering with Christ you are never alone, endure other folks asking the dreaded question, “Why are you still single?” endure your parents wondering if they’ll ever have any grandkids from you, endure the holidays while remaining encouraged, endure every step of the way just as Christ endured and was tempted just like you while knowing that the joy of the Lord is your strength!

Because Jesus, our Great Example, endured so can you and He gives you the power to endure as you seek His face and His strength every day.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

…for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10b

Kim Brooks, author of, How To Date and Stay Saved, and, He's Fine...But is He Saved? www.kimontheweb.com

How Will You Run YOUR Race?

Life is a race.

Thank God that for the believer, the finish line is glory – or when we meet our Savior in heaven.

Thank God that while we run this race here on earth, God’s watching over us, leading us, guiding and directing us.

Even during those moments He may be shaking His head at us when we don’t do His will or fully trust Him, warning us when we place ourselves in risky or compromising situations, or when He’s sending His angels out on in droves for us when we ignore His leading at times, He’s still loving us, He’s still rooting for us, He’s still believing in us.

The Word of God says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”  Hebrews 12:1

The Amplified Bible version of this Scripture reads this way, THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,

It’s time for us to lay aside and get rid of the sins that entangle us and keep us wrapped up in the devil’s territory; let’s shake off those weights and follow hard after God like a deer panting for water. (Psalm 42:1)

We can run our race knowing that God and great men and women of faith who have gone before us are cheering us on and claiming the victory for us every step of the way.  (Hebrews 11)

Life’s race is not a sprint – it’s a journey.

Instead of focusing on what we don’t have or complaining about where we are in life now versus where we thought we would be, let’s decide, today, to enjoy the journey and run this race with patience.

Nothing worth having comes overnight… sure you may not have some things you may be believing God for yet, sure you may be believing God for a mate along with other goals, but remember that the word patience in Hebrews 12:1 means steadfastness, constancy, endurance…it means the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings, it means a patient, steadfast waiting for – a patient enduring, sustaining, perserverance.

So instead of looking around at how God’s blessing ‘her’ or how God’s doing that for ‘him’, or ‘them’, stay focused on YOUR race and continue to look ahead with Jesus as the author and finisher of your faith.  (Hebrews 12:2)

Run your race with patience and joy knowing that at the end of your finish line, and even while on the journey - you win.

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.   2 Corinthians 2:14

Kim Brooks, author of, How To Date and Stay Saved, and, He's Fine...But is He Saved? www.kimontheweb.com

Let Time Tell on a Person

While the Bible denotes no set timetable as far as how long a couple should date before marriage, practical wisdom tells us that the more time you spend with someone, the more you are able to get to know the other person for who they really are.

I have talked to many women who claim they didn’t marry the same person they dated, but when you ask them how long they dated before marriage their normal reply is less than six months.

After dating someone a year or longer you should have a more specific idea about the other person’s character.

True relationships, which begin with friendship as the foundation and eventually blossom into becoming each other’s best friend, take time to develop.  As the saying goes, “time will tell,” so let time tell on a person.

You need time to get to really know each other in order to pray through the relationship, collect data, be led by the Spirit, and follow peace.  You need time to see -should a situation arise where your two may not agree on something or you may be challenged – how your date responds.  Does he go into a rage?  Or is he calm and considers a matter before responding? Men, if peace is an important factor in choosing a wife, and she goes off on you and on other people seemingly at the drop of a hat, then you may want to ask yourself if this is the type of person you want to have to deal with for the rest of your life. During the relationship, you both want to obey the Word when it says,

Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: James 1:19

…let the relationship develop naturally, and not based on your own personal timetable (somebody shoot the biological clock! Lol)  Sometimes when we do it based on our own timetable, we overlook a lot of flaws about the other person that we shouldn’t overlook because we feel like we’re trying to get to our goal of marriage by a certain age.

Don’t fall into that trap.  Like the song says, “Step back and let God do it.”

No matter how old you are right now, no matter how much you may have thought you would have been married with 2.5 kids by now, ladies, don’t get into a rush to marry the first man that comes along and says he’s saved.

Don’t view time as an enemy. Time is your friend. If a person asks to marry you now, and you ask him to wait, then more than likely if he really loves you, he isn’t going anywhere.

The following were mainly excerpts from Chapter 3 of my book, How To Date and Stay Saved.

Kim Brooks, author of, How To Date and Stay Saved, and, He's Fine...But is He Saved? www.kimontheweb.com

10 Reasons Women Settle in Relationships

We all know these women – they settle for relationships where they’re being abused physically or verbally by men who don’t respect them or their feelings, yet they still choose to stay in the relationship.  Some of us may even admit that this woman was us at one point.  Today I’m led to share 10 reasons I believe women settle for less than God’s best for them in relationships.  Feel free to add your input as well.

in no particular order of importance (they’re ALL important

1.  Fear that there’s no one better out there for them

2.  Fear that no one else would want them

3.  Lack of self-worth and self-love

4.  Lack of realizing how much God loves them and because of this they deserve to be treated like royalty.

5.  Driven by life’s desires (i.e. desire to be married by a certain age, have kids by a certain age) and if this doesn’t work out some women feel the may miss their opportunity to live their familial dreams

6.  Lack of knowing what true love should look like (i.e. lack of examples of godly, successful relationships or lack of internalizing 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 )

7.  Believing the LIE of the good man shortage, perpetuated by the media (how many video clips on the ‘single black woman’s struggle to find a man’ do we have to watch???)

8.  Poor self-confidence and poor sself-esteem

9.  Fear of being alone

10.  Just plain ‘ole FEAR (fear of making the wrong decision, fear of never falling in love again, and on and on and on…)

But thanks be to GOD, for He has not given us a spirit of FEAR, but that of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7) , so we bind fear today in Jesus’ Name!

More relationship/dating advice and encouragement for Christian singles found on http://www.kimontheweb.com/

Kim Brooks, author of, How To Date and Stay Saved, and, He's Fine...But is He Saved? www.kimontheweb.com