No one is beyond redemption. No one is beyond forgiveness. No one is so lost that God doesn’t want them. None of us are beyond hope. God always want us. He loves us. He always seeks us.
He is constantly in pursuit of each and ever one of us. He pursues us on our best day and at our worst moment, seeking relationship with us in every moment.
God is always with us if we will just let Him in.
Leadership can be daunting, overwhelming and a lot of pressure depending on how you do it.
Jesus lead as a servant, counting himself above nothing. He looked to Father God for every step of His path. If even He was humble enough to let God lead, how can we do anything else?
God designed each and everyone of us. He knows what He created us for and how to achieve His plan.
We need to stop trying to figure our how we are going to do everything and let God lead.
Watching the movie Brave the other night reminded me of how important listening is in relationships. If we just talk at each other and never listen, we miss what the other person needs and who they are.
It’s the same with our relationship with God, we can talk at God all day but if we don’t listen for the response we will never know or understand him.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight
We should always be growing in our relationships with God and with others. It’s when we stop that we feel stuck or stagnant. We should fall head over heels in love more and more as time goes by.
Marriage is not the end its the beginning of a beautiful journey of discovery together.
When we begin our relationship with God we don’t all the sudden know everything about him. We still have to build a relationship. And as we learn about him we grow to love him more.
It’s the same with our spouses. Yes, we got to know each other before we got married and that why we got married. But we have to continue that adventure of knowing each others.
Because love grows.
We should be overjoyed to learn new thing about God, because we love him. Just as we should in marriage. We should be learning more and more about each other and falling deeper in love with each other.
That’s why God uses marriage as an example of his relationship with us. Both relationships are supposed to be deep, intimate and always growing.
You might have noticed a lot of my posts repeat some of the same messages. That’s because my passion is for you to have a deep intimate relationship with God and for him to use you to share the same work he has done in you and me, with others.
Paul the author of Philippians was repetitive in his teachings because he was passionate about what he taught, as am I.
What God has done for me in my life I could never repay and he still continues to shower me with his love everyday. As I know he wants to do the same for you too.
Don’t worry about sounding like a broken record when you are sharing his love with others. Simply share what the Holy Spirit leads you to, and let the burden he has placed in your heart speak out through your words and actions as you share.
People do a lot for acceptance. We are all easily influenced when we are searching for acceptance. It’s easy for us to make choices we normally wouldn’t on our own when surrounded by others, others that want us to be like them just for them to accept us.
We can feel welcomed and accepted by a group initially but as time goes by those people will influence who we are, we can make compromises to maintain or strengthen those relationships.
But we if we change who we are, just to be loved and accepted there will always be something in us that is searching for that unconditional acceptance.
Jesus is that unconditional acceptance. He loves us whether we love him or not. He made us and he knows how to fulfill us.
I know from experience. I tried to fill that need for acceptance with the approval of others and never found peace, fulfillment, contentment or unconditional love.
Only once I gave my life to Jesus did I find what I had been looking for. In the moment that I was at my worst, he was at his best. I didn’t have to try to do or be anything he just surrounded me with his love.
We all have that same opportunity anywhere, any time, at any moment.
Give God a chance to show you his unconditional love.
Even when it feels like the world is crumbling down around us. God is still God and God is still good. He is the one thing that we can count on to always be there for us. To always be all we ever need.
So when you feel like your world is crumbling, retreat into his presence. Seek him and let him be your all and your everything. Let him bear all the burden and find rest and peace in him.
Because he will never disappoint us if we seek him and he will never let us fall when we put our trust in him.
It’s easy to be seduced by getting what you want instantly, instead of waiting for it.
In The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edmond is drawn in by the witch when she says that she will give him what he wants if he just brings her what she wants.
But if Edmond had waited just a little longer Aslan would have given him everything he had asked for and more.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we want and when we want it that we make compromises and sacrifices we never needed to if we would just wait.
Jesus has so much for us, to bless us, lift us up and love us. But it’s his love for us that makes us wait for the things we want sometimes, because he knows when each blessing is best for us.
If we get everything we want right when we want it, we will over indulge or use it all and still want more, like Edmond with the Turkish Delight the witch gave him. He ate it all quickly and wanted more, but later felt sick because he didn’t appreciate the gift.
Jesus knows what we need and when we need it. We just have to wait for his timing.
What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?
How would you like someone to approach you about anything in life? With a stick ready to beat you into submission or with love and gentleness. I think we would all choose the later. No one wants to be beaten up. So why do we see gentleness and love as a weakness?
Its easy to let your emotions run away, but it takes self control to choose to be kind, loving and gentle.
Some of the strongest people I know are the ones that are the most willing to open up and share their mistakes and failures along with their victories.
Gentleness is being humble enough to focus on the needs of others instead of trying to boast or promote yourself; it takes strength to choose others above yourself.
To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Paul greets the people of Collassae and immediately reminds them of their identity in Jesus. That they are God’s holy people and that gives them God’s grace and because of his grace they have peace.
We should be the same when we see greet other brothers and sisters in the faith. We should see them as God sees them as his kids. As loved, forgiven and made new in Jesus. We should be encouraging each other to be who God created us to be. So that when we see others distressed we can remind them that God’s grace gives them peace and help them to refocus there attention on who God made them to be instead of their problems.
When we spend our time with other believers, trying to point out their problems instead of the solution. It’s like poking a wound. Instead of trying to help. All we are doing is drawing attention to it and making it hurt worse.
But when we direct others to being made new in Jesus, it like applying ointment to the wound, promoting healing.
When we’re at a loss and we don’t know what to do, we can always turn to God. He is the creator of the universe he created us and he knows us. He knows the little things that bring a smile to our faces and the little things that can change our whole mood.
But we have to turn to him in those moments when we get in a funk and don’t know what to do, where to turn or just don’t want to keep doing what we’re doing.
It’s that knowledge of us that he uses to comfort us, bring us joy and hope and remind us that we matter and that we are loved.
It’s easy to feel alone in our struggles, but we never are when we have Jesus. He’s always there with us being all that we need even in our lowest lows God is with us. All we need is to turn to him.
He teaches us so much in our struggles. He shows us what is really important and the value or lack of value in the things of this world.
Jesus said we will have struggles but he has overcome them. Since he is always with us, we can always overcome them, because he has overcome them.
The enemy will taunt us with our worst fears to discourage us from becoming who God has intended us to be.
The Return of the King movie depicts this when Aragon uses the seeing stone to fight Sauron by claiming his identity as the heir to the throne. Sauron replies by trying to scare him with the death of Arwen.
The enemy’s biggest weapon is fear. Fear of what if, of what might happen. But you can’t put your trust or your faith in what if.
You can put your faith in Jesus and draw your strength from your identity in him.
The enemy can’t have a hold on you, if you don’t let him.
We fight fear with truth. The enemy says you are ugly, God says you are beautiful. The enemy says you are weak, God says he will be your strength.
The truth of who God has made us to be is our strongest weapon, but we have to know it to use it.
When we die to our selfish desires and let Jesus live through us we become like him. Read the scriptures about Jesus, know who he is and what he said and did. Isaiah 61 is one of my favorite passage describing what Jesus came to do and be. Read it and let the Holy Spirit teach you who he made you to be in Jesus.
If we let fear control us we would never do anything, because we would always be afraid of something going wrong, even if its the smallest detail. But when we put our faith into something it changes things.
We do it every day, we have faith that a bridge will stay up when we drive over it, we have faith that there will be water when we turn on the faucet. We do things everyday that require faith.
Faith is simply complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
So when we put our trust or our faith in God its because we are confident in him, we know him and therefore know we can trust him.
God has never let me down and I know he never will. That’s what I put my faith in. So when we feel fear creeping in, we need to remember who’s with us and in us, the creator of the universe and he’s got this.
Some may think these verses seem archaic, but this passage is really just about work ethic.
We as believers in Jesus are to work as He did; to serve others and give the best of ourselves and let God provide for our needs.
When we work to serve others geniuenly and not out of obligation or what we can get from it, God blesses us.
It’s when we try to work for our needs, our wants, and only for what we can get out of it; that we receive only what we worked for. But when we do our best work for others; God blesses us.
Unknown territory can be scary. When God asks us to venture where we’ve never been or do something new it can be intimidating.
That’s where faith comes in. When we know God, we know His character, we know who He is, we know that we can trust Him.
Jesus asked Peter to get out of the boat and to walk out on the water to Him. Something that we all would have a hard time doing. But he knew Jesus and he knew that if Jesus told him to take that step of faith that He would provide all he needed to do what Jesus asked of him.
It was only when Peter changed his focus from Jesus to the storm around him that he began to sink. Fixing his eyes back on Jesus brought him back upon the water.
What has Jesus asked you to take a step of faith in? Have you taken it and lost your way. Fix your eyes back on Him, and trust that He will provide what you need to walk on the water with Him.
Every year I post my story (my testimony) of how God changed my life because I know it reaches people, it shows them they are not alone and that God can change their story too. But this year I want to hear your stories of how God changed your life.
Because we each have a story and everyone’s is important and can make a difference in the the life of others. Please share your story in the comments or post it on Social media and share what God has done in your life.
It’ amazing the difference of negative influences on our lives verse positive influences.
If we let people tell us lies and influence our every decision.
We can be old and almost dead if we let the wrong person speak into our lives. Like Grimmer Wormtongue with King Theoden in Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers.
I’m sure that King Theoden’s demise was slow and over time as he let Grimmer lie to him about his friends and family, slowly till the point where Grimmer was making all his decisions for him.
We can become like this too, if we allow the wrong influences to be the predominate voice in or lives.
But that doesn’t have to be true of us.
We can choose who we allow to have influence over us. We have a choice of who we listen too, what we watch and how we let those things affect us.
If we let the Holy Spirit be the predominate influence in our lives. He is always with us and always has something encouraging and uplifting to say. Even moments when he correct us can be encouraging.
A few years ago when my now husband and I ere first dating. I was in a book store and the Holy Spirit corrected me in how I was acting towards my him.
That moment was one of the most loving and intimate moments I have ever had with God. Even His correction is loving.
Trust God.
Listen to the Holy Spirit about the influences in your life and trust that if He asks you to give something up that He has something even better to replace it.
Whether you put yourself where you’re at or God put you there don’t forget to stop look up and enjoy what’s around you. Often we become so focused on the end goal that we forget to enjoy how we got there. The journey is just as important.
Raising kids is a perfect example. If you just focus on getting them to eighteen and out of the house you will miss everything. But if we enjoy each moment with them, every smile and laugh, watching them learn and truly cherishing them. We will have joy each day, just by watching them grow.
That doesn’t mean their won’t be hard times or they wont make mistakes, but its those moments of joy that get you through the hard times and make it worth fighting through them.
What if God took that approach? To just get it over and done with, we wouldn’t be here. We are all God’s children and he cherishes each moment with us. He’s always there ready to teach us, help us and love us through each moment of each day. We just have to learn to enjoy the journey with him.
Sharing what God teaches us with others is how we grow. We are meant to share with each other. When we read the word of God we should be getting something out of it, it is a feast for our souls. Even if we read the same verse for an entire year God will still teach us through that verse or if we feast on a whole book or chapter He can teach us just as much through a verse as He does the whole Bible if we let him.
That’s the miracle that He is, He can sustain us on little or a lot, but we must always be looking to learn and to grow. It’s not about quantity but about quality.
What are we learning from? What we are trying to absorb? If we read just to read and don’t understand is it really helping us?
Seek God, ask Him for a verse or a chapter or a book and read it till He tells you to move on. Fall in love with the word of God and let it feed your soul.
Everything in life can fail and falter, but the one thing we can always count on and depend on is God, because he doesn’t change. He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is always loving, always there and always dependable.
He’s always on time and always work things out for good.
He is the one thing in life that we can count on 100%.
It’s us that falter or wavier, that grow impatient or try to do things in our own time or our own way. But when we depend on God and follow his lead we will have no regret.
What sacrifices are you willing to make for the gospel? Are you willing to sell all that you own and move half way around the world to share the good news. Thousands of missionaries around the world have done just that. They have uprooted there families and moved to reach people groups that God has laid on their hearts to reach.
Why are so many willing to make this kind of sacrifice. Because the good news changes you. It gives you a second chance and a third and a fourth. The good news is that Jesus came to sacrifice his life for us so that everyone in all of humanity could be forgiven. We sacrifice because he sacrificed, because the he gift he gives is unmatched.
His forgiveness gives us the opportunity to have relationship with him every moment of every day. A line of He Lives by Nicole C. Mullen says “I talked with him this morning” because she did, because I did. Having a relationship with Jesus is accepting his sacrifice and forgiveness. This relationship lets us talk with God every moment of everyday. We just have to listen.
Sometimes he’ll just remind you of the little things in life like to stop and smell the roses, sometimes the big thing in life like asking you to move half way around the word. Whether it’s big or its small you have to talk to him to know. You can’t build a relationship without conversation. The faith to do the big things comes from the days of talking about the little things.
Start the conversation, read your bible and ask him to explain a verse you don’t understand, watch a Christian movie (try “End of the Spear“) and ask him to teach you something through it, take a walk and asks him about his creation, watch your kids play and ask him to teach you something about them.
Talk to God you never know what he might say.
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice –Phillipians 1:1-11, 15-18
The book of Philippians is a letter written to the believers in Philippi. Paul addresses them as old friends saying how he longs for them and prays for them.
This reminds me of the church community I grew up in. Even though we live far from them now I still feel a connection to them and always will. I still care for them deeply, pray for them and desire for them to grow closer to Jesus. Just as Paul does for the church in Philippi.
This is how we should feel about all believers.
When we meet other believers there is an instant bond, a connection we feel when we meet that binds us together.
There are so many things that divide us as believers, but shouldn’t we all have the same prayer as Paul for all believers.
The prayer that we all grow closer to Jesus.
In our current time of social media and constant self promotion it can be hard to be humble.
We can be so worried about how many likes, shares and followers we get that we can lose sight of who and what we represent. As believers in Jesus we are meant to shine Him to others, not ourselves. And we can be discouraged when even our posts about Him get little to no traffic.
But we must remember that what we write/post/share for Jesus, isn’t about us, it’s about Him. And He will use it, even if we reach just one person with what we share, it could be that one thing that they needed. We may never know the impact we have made.
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
We as Christians can be very judgmental. We see people living life without God and immediately judge them; we even judge each other.
But we need to remember that we all came to Jesus because we needed him. None of us are perfect. Jesus sacrifice covered all our wrong doings and it covers all theirs too.
Instead of judging people we need to see them as Jesus sees them. That He is greater than all they’ve done, all we’ve done and no challenge is too great for Him.
Jesus is the one who changed us and made us who we are and makes us who we are becoming. Everyone is just in a different place in their relationship with Jesus. Some of us are still learning to trust Him, some are still learning to love Him and some don’t even know Him.
The next time you catch yourself being judgmental of anyone. Remember…
they just need more Jesus.
God’s love can change our worst moment, a bad mood or the direst of circumstances. Just by allowing him to shift our perspective. If the apostle Paul can worship in prison and Steven can forgive those that are stoning him. Shifting our focus to God can change the atmosphere, our perspective and our attitude. Fix our eyes on Jesus isn’t always about changing where we are at rather its changing our focus onto him.
So when we feel lost or stuck, unwanted or unworthy we can always turn to Jesus. No matter how long its been, how bad we feel, regardless of what is around us, his perspective can change it all.
So ask Jesus: What do you want to be for me now? How do you see this?
These are some of my favorite questions to ask God. Because I know I can always turn to him; trust him.
It’s easy for us to get into moments where we think we aren’t worthy to talk to him or to go to him. But he always wants to talk to us, be there for us and love us. He sees us at our worst moments and stills says:
I love you, come to me.
We can’t earn his love, favor or grace, but he gives it to us freely. We just have to allow him in, allow his love to wash over us, to change our view, our attitude and our perspective.
Even in the trials of life God has blessings for us. Jesus said:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
To find peace in the trials of life we have to keep fixed on Jesus not our circumstances.
God always wants to bless us and provide all we need and more but if we get lost in our suffering we block him out.
It’s only when we fix our eyes on Jesus despite our suffering that’s when he can be the peace beyond understanding for us and help us find joy.
God was in the gentle whisper. He speaks to us in many ways and one way is through others. Whenever I read this verse it reminds me of the scene in The Nativity Story when one of the ladies in the village where Mary lives tells the village kids this story.
She’s teaching them the different ways God speaks us.
God speaks to us through our surroundings, through nature, through visions and dreams, through others and he speaks directly to us. (more about how God speaks to us)
Often people think that God doesn’t speak to them because they didn’t hear a loud, booming audible voice. But don’t you think we would all be a little freaked out if that was the only way he spoke to us.
God desires a deep intimate relationship with each one of us and to do that he whispers to us, but we have to listen.
Our lives must become a fitting response to His love. ~Heidi Baker
You can never have enough of God. We need to make him part of everything, everyday. He created the universe he can plan our day or show us the best way to handle life’s curveballs, he can fill us with all that we need and overflow us so that when the hard times in life come all that pours out is Him.
The beauty of Jesus sacrifice is that we get a fresh start, we die to ourselves. Our past is dead, our mistakes are forgiven and we can start fresh and new and its not in our own strength but in His strength, His wisdom, His words, His everything. The beauty of being made new in him is that its not all on us. Lets face it we screwed it up the first, so why would we think we’d be the solution to our redo.
When we feel our past or our old selves creeping back in, our answer should be to say ‘No in Jesus name, that is not who I am anymore’ then fix our eyes back on Jesus. He is the solution to everything. I don’t have all the answers and neither do you, but he does.
So stop struggling and surrender.
We are not meant to know everything or the answer to all of life’s questions, but we should know how to respond. Even Jesus didn’t always respond with words. Sometimes all people need is someone to listen, a shoulder to cry on or someone to cheer them on and encourage them.
We have the Holy Spirit with us at all times and he is the one with all the answers. But even his response is not always what to say but sometimes what to do or what not to do.
How to react to a situation usually makes a bigger impact then words. That’s why building a deep intimate relationship with God is so important. So that in the hardest and most influential situations we can hear him and follow his leading.
Next time your in a situation and you don’t know what to do, ask the Holy Spirit and trust that he knows how best to react.
Even when we feel we at our worst, God is always all we need.
We tend to want the be alone when at our darkest moment but that’s when He shines most (in the darkest places). That’s when we need Him most and that’s when we should turn to Him.
Only He can truly deliver us from our worst moment because only He can make us new.
We are never beyond Jesus reach, if we let Him in.
The best part about Jesus is that he is what we are not. So when we say we don’t it feel like, that’s ok, we don’t have to, because he is what we are not. He is our strength, our peace, our joy he is all need.
We have to stop trying to be what we think God wants us to be and let him be in us what he is.
When we surrender our lives over to him we need to fill that up with something but we often make the mistake of filling up on the things that got us to where we were in the first place before Jesus.
We need to fill up on Jesus, to fix our eyes on what draws us closer to him, not further from him. We all have this problem of trying to imitate God instead of letting him be God in us.
We need to get out of the way.
If his intention was to have us fix ourselves, then why did he sacrifice his life for us.
Don’t say well that’s just the way I am. Because when you gave your life over to God you gave up that person, to be the person he created you to be.
That person is loving and peaceful and fearless and joyful.
So stop saying less of me and more of him and say none of me and all of him.
The second book of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is Prince Caspian. I am always asking God to reveal new things to me; especially when I read or watch something for the umpteenth time.
I never realized it before but Prince Caspian is symbolic what happens to us when Jesus lives in us. Caspian is the son of the king and the rightful heir to the throne but he goes about obtaining the throne by seeking to restore peace between all and by not trying to do it all on his own.
He looks to Aslan, who represents Jesus for help and the counsel of others who have served Aslan.
We are the same. We are heirs to the throne of heaven with Jesus, because of his sacrifice. But the only way we can take our place with him is to believe in him and serve him.
When we serve God and others he lifts us up, higher then we could ever be if we tried to lift ourselves up.
You know those times when you just don’t know what to do, or where to draw your strength. That’s when we need God most. When we don’t know where to look.
He is the one that created us and he knows every little detail the good and the bad. But when we are at our worst; is when he is at his best. When we don’t know what to do but surrender to him. That’s when he can do his best for us. When we breakdown our walls of self sufficiency and the ‘I got this’ and let him lead. That’s when he can do his best for us. Because its not about what we can do on own own but what he can do through us.
Why don’t we just go straight to heaven the minute we accept Jesus into our hearts?
For this very reason, that we might be there to encourage and uplift each other, but also so that we may take more people to heaven with us.
What better way to reach people then through people. God has a grand intricate design to every bit of creation and we are a major part of that. He wanted to make us part of the process, not just instantaneous zap into heaven.
Think about it, would’t that be scary if every time someone accepted Jesus sacrifice they disappeared. Who would want to follow that person? Not knowing where they went, why, if they were ok.
No, God makes us his witnesses to tell and show others, how he changes our lives, how he heals and restores how he provides and loves us beyond imagination.
We are meant to share him with others, so go out and tell someone!
I’m not afraid of the world, I’m not afraid to travel or to move, I’m not afraid to follow God.
Every time I follow God’s leading, his direction, his plan. He has been all I needed, he has provided more then I needed.
When I follow him he give me all I need. The strength to follow his direction, the confidence to walk through the storm and the love to do all that he has asked.
When God calls us to do something, to be something, he gives us all that we need and more to not just accomplish what he has for us, he give us boldness and confidence to thrive in what he’s called us to.
What has he called you to? Fear not for he will be all you need and more.
It is well with my soul, is all any of us want. We want to have peace in us to have freedom from guilt and shame, to stop fighting against everything and everyone and to truly find peace.
Jesus is that peace, because he is peace.
He came to give us his peace in our very souls.
That we would no longer walk in fear or worry, but in confidence and strength, that we would draw that from him. Because no matter how alone we feel when we have him in our lives we are never really alone, he is with us always.
In ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ movie, when Aslan lays down his life in place of Edmond, I can hardly watch and it always makes me cry. Because Aslan represents Jesus and Edmond represents humanity. It reminds me of what Jesus did to give us relationship with him.
Jesus laid down His life willingly for us, all of us and He knew it wouldn’t be easy or quick and that some would even rejoice in His unjust suffering but he forgave them even as He was dying, He forgave all of us.
Jesus paid the price for everything we have even done wrong so that He could have a relationship with us, so we could be forgiven and find freedom from guilt and shame.
Thank Jesus today for his sacrifice and find the freedom he paid for.
God loved us from the very beginning of creation, that’s why he created us, to love us.
We praise him because we trust him, we know who he is and that there is no one else like him, he is love and deserves all the glory.
That’s why we praise him, because of who he is, not who we are. Giving glory to God has nothing to do with us or whether we feel worthy to praise him, its about giving honor where honor is due.
He is God and he loves us, so if we love him, we should praise him for who he is, our everything.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
There is no greater gift then Gods grace. It gives us all new life, a fresh start and the deepest most intense love of our lives.
Listen to this song and just have moment with Jesus and appreciate his grace in your life.
God fights for us, he gave up the life of his son just to have relationship with us.
Jesus gave everything, he didn’t come down as a grown man and demand what was owned to him. He came in the humblest of circumstances as a baby born to regular people of no great social standing or of any wealth. He lived a humble life and served his parents, he served his friends and surrendered every moment of his life even dying the death of a criminal without a single justifiable cause. He gave up everything to pay the price for us so that we could have a relationship with him and the father.
That’s love. To give up everything owed to him, for us to know his love. Thank him for his love and sacrifice today.
God gives us everything we need, no matter how dry, how tired, how exhausted we are he give us what we need and more.
He gives us strength, wisdom, energy and love beyond anything we could ever do ourselves, but we must go to him and let him fill us up.
Time with Jesus is what gives us what we need for the day. He is the life giving water that fuels us, invigorates us and makes us flourish.
When we are in his presence he restores us and refills us.
If we don’t do well without food, water and rest, then how can we expect to do well without the one who created those things.
He knows us, he knows what we need and when we need it. Let him be your everything and he will provide everything.
A movie recently came out about Bart Millard of Mercy Me’s life called I Can Only Imagine. Bart’s dad was horrible to him as he was growing up and he left as soon as he graduated high school, to pursue his career in Christian music but just before his band made it big, he went home to patch things up with his dad and God answered both their prayers. Bart returned home which was his fathers prayer and his father had accepted Jesus and he finally had the dad he always wanted.
God answers our prayers but sometimes the timeline doesn’t always happen when we think it should.
My mom raised me as a christian but I decided to abandon God for 6 years in my early twenties and live life the way I wanted.
This broke my moms heart. She prayed years for me to return to my faith in God. She watched for years as I made stupid, selfish choices all in the name of finding what I thought would make me happy.
But what I found instead was disappointment and a constant longing to feel loved, accepted, valued and wanted.
By worldly standards I had what appeared to be a good life on the outside, a good job with consistent promotions and a long term relationship. But in reality I had a job that pulled me away from friends and family and an emotionally abuse dependent relationship.
I was miserable trying to find happiness on my own.
Eventually I hit rock bottom and decided to give my life back to God.
Keep praying for your family and friends, continue to love and support them and always keep the door open for them. You never know when they will make the decision to change their life.
Who is Jesus to you really? Is a man who walked the earth years ago, who had some followers and said some great things? Is he someone you claim to worship, but really know nothing about? What do you know about him? Do you know his character, his actions, his sense of humor? Who is he to you?
Jesus to me is the son of God, he came to earth as a baby to serve the people he loved, to sacrifice everything for the people he created because he loved them. He gave up everything for us and so I have no problem giving everything for him.
Because Jesus is the one I run to when I have a problem or bad day, bad mood or hard circumstance, but he’s also the first one I thank for all the great things in life. I seek him each morning and through out the day because days without him are tough and dull. He is my friend, my confidant and he uplifts my spirit. Jesus is my everything.
What is he to YOU?
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
It’s so easy to get caught up in who we were in our past, last week or even an hour ago. But you can’t change the past, only learn from it.
Our focus should be on the present and the future; looking towards who Jesus made us to be and what he has called us to.
Dwelling on the past only makes you look backwards; it’s really hard to go forwards when you are always looking backwards.
Surrender your past year, day, hour and even the last minute to Jesus and move forward. Allow his grace and sacrifice to cleanse you of your past and focus on who he is turning you into.
He’s not concerned with what you’ve done, he already paid the price for it. His focus is on who he has made you to be and what he has planned for you.
Jesus rescues us. He rescued me and he can rescue you.
So many people think Christians are perfect, but we wouldn’t be Christians if we were perfect. The very reason we need Jesus is because we are not perfect.
We need Jesus, we need his grace, his sacrifice, his love, his forgiveness.
We have all messed up in our lives, and that’s why we need him.
We don’t need to try to clean up before we come to Jesus, or fix our mistakes first. We need to come to him at our worst, so that he can makes us our best.
He loves to see us at our worst because that’s when we have broken down our barriers and he can come in and make us new. He already knows all the junk and he wants to makes clean and new, to take away the harm of our past mistakes and give us love and joy and confidence because we know that no matter what he will always love us.
I will never claim to perfect because I know that I have a past, a past full of mistakes that I regret, but it’s because of his love and forgiveness that my life has changed and that’s what I focus on, on him and his love and forgiveness.
That’s what he has done for me and he can do that for you too.
Seek God first.
In all things, seek him.
When your having a rough day, ask yourself did I put God first , did I talk to him this morning, did I start my day out right? Is he part of what I’m doing right now.
And if he isn’t. STOP. put him first above everything else and let him be your peace, your guidance, all you need.
Restart your day the right way, by putting God first.
Follow a skeptical director in the first of three films to see if God is really working in our lives today.
Adoption is a powerful way to impact the life of another. My husband is adopted and we plan to pass that blessing on by adopting in the future. But in wanting to adopt we also want to do it responsible, knowing as much as we can about what that child has been through and not expecting them to come as a perfect child, but as someone who is up for adoption because they have been through something traumatic or have been unwanted. And in that knowing that we as humans cannot be their solution. We can love them as best we can but only Jesus can repair the damage.
We all have damage in some way and have all felt unwanted at some point in our life.
But Jesus wants us. He loves us and wants us to feel whole, healed and completed by him.
He adopted us all into his family when he choose to give up his life for us. He made a way for us to be a part of his family and there is always enough room for everyone in the family of God.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
This verse doesn’t say rejoice when you feel like it or when you want to. But rejoice always, in the good times and the bad, rejoice.
Because no matter what God is with you.
Since he is always with you, you always have a reason to rejoice.
