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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.
Dancing to worship God is a freeing experience, its using your all your being to praise God with your words, your mind, your heart and your body. Dancing to praise God isn’t about skill or show, it’s about rejoicing over what God has done and is doing in your life.
I prefer to dance in worship in private at home or if in a corporate setting I will go to the back corner. For me dancing in worship is freeing but also something very private between me and Jesus. Please don’t misconstrue that you have to dance to fully worship God. I have had moments of worship with Jesus where I’ve been sitting in a corner saying nothing, doing nothing just enjoying his presence, those moments are just a deep and intimate.
When I was in Uganda everyone danced and sang for worship and honestly when I got back to home it was hard not to dance.
The point of worship is to glorify God, not ourselves. So even if we are preforming skilled dance for others in worship to God it is about our heart.
Worship is about our hearts.
Its about surrender, humility and glorifying God. However you worship or someone else worships humble yourself and glorify God.
I want you to know, brothers,[e] that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard[f] and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word[g] without fear.–Philippians 1:12-14
Paul was in prison when he wrote the book of Philippians, but he didn’t let it affect his witness. Instead he used it to witness to the guards and the other prisoners. And his boldness encouraged the believers outside to spread the gospel further and more passionately. God uses our circumstances, no matter how bleak to reach people.
My husband and I recently went through some rough financially patches, but each time God used it to draw us closer together, closer to him, and to help us see what’s really important in life.
God has been working me towards the goal of writing this blog for a long time, but in the process I wrote and trashed half a book, wrote a second book and have two failed ministry launches to get me to the point of realizing what my ministry would be and how he wanted me to do it.
This blog and having a career as a writer has been a dream for a long time, but God had to take me through a process to make me who I am today, to prepare me to do this the right way. Along this long path I’ve picked up skills that we’re much needed to make this a success and (I’m still learning) but I wouldn’t of had the drive, the desire or the knowledge without going on the journey that he took me on.
Just because you may have failed at what you know God has called you to, doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to use that experience to teach you how to succeed in what he’s called you too.
So keep pursuing the dream God has placed in your heart and don’t be discouraged, we all fail, but it’s how we fail that matters.
Let God lead you on the path he has for you.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love is selfless, lust is selfish.
In our instant gratification society, everyone wants everything immediately, people are rarely willing to wait for anything.
But what compromises have we made for convenience. We eat lower quality food because its cheaper and faster. We spend extra on shipping to get things one day sooner. We get annoyed if an email or download isn’t instant.
What has this done to our relationships? What compromises have we made?
We make snap judgments and quick commitments without giving much thought to it because its easier. But at what cost?
Lust is about ourselves, it’s about instant gratification of hormonal desires, it’s about me and what I can get.
Love is selfless. Love puts others before themselves.
When was the last time you were solely 100% focused on making everything about the other person?
Love waits because it sees the other as valuable. Love sees the best in the other and seeks to encourage them to be who God made them to be. Love keeps you grounded during the hard times and makes the good times better.
Love never fails, lust does.
Lust fulfills our selfish desires. Love fulfills the desire of our love.
Trusting God’s way can seem scary, but he has never failed me.
He always wants what’s best for us and that’s him.
See he is love ad because he is love his thoughts are not self-seeking they are for what’s best for us.
He love us so much that he does not even insist on his ways. He gives us the choice to choose them or not.
I trust God because he loves me and his love has never failed.
The other day I wrote about who Jesus is to me.
He is is my everything and it’s because of him that I write. He put the burden in my heart to write, he called me to it and encourages me in it, he is who I want to bring light to and draw our focus to.
I don’t write this blog for myself for my glorify or to be heard by others, I write it to draw people closer to Jesus, to help them see that he loves them and that he wants to be with us every moment of every day.
So if you get anything out of these devotionals I hope that it is that you see Jesus, grow closer to him and know him better each day.
The Love Dare is a fantastic book that helps you to put your spouse first before yourself as all good marriages should. But I will be the first to admit that it is easy to put the other first when your feeling good, and things are going well. But it is so much harder when things are hard and your not at your best.
Marriage isn’t about just the good times, it about how you handle the hard times. It’s about sticking together and loving one another even when you don’t feel like it or even want to. Marriage is a commitment for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. That means you don’t bail when things get tough or you don’t care for each other at the moment, because the moment will pass and things will get better.
But that doesn’t happen by accident you have to have God at the center of your marriage. Because if your happiness and well being depends on another person you will never be fulfilled. Only God can do that. Only he can truly make you feel 100% fulfilled.
When you get your identity from God, you draw on him for strength, perseverance and perspective. To see things from the perspective of the other opens the barriers you may have put up as a defense, and when you trust God to guide you, you can drop those barriers to bring reconciliation.
Life today is so much about appearance; we only show what we want others to see, we crop out the reality of life to project what’s expected, we add effects and filters, but often feel no one really knows the true us. .
Deep down all seeking a relationship where we can be ourselves, raw, open, vulnerable and unfiltered.
God is that person, He knows us, the good and the bad, the raw, the ugly. He knows it all, every little moment, every thought, every emotion, He knows us inside and out and He love us still, He held back nothing to know us. He gave His whole life; just to show His love for us.
Because of this love we can be open, honest and vulnerable with Him, He can handle it, in fact He loves the moments when we just surrender to Him. That’s when He can reach us the most, when we have no barriers with Him, He can express His love for us the most.
Go to Him with your problems big or little, go to Him with your worst, most broken moments and let Him be all you need. Let Him put you back together and build you up stronger.
When we are in any leadership role at work, at home, volunteer or any other capacity we need to be mindful of how we lead. Jesus lead by example as a servant, he never asked his disciples to do what he was not already doing, he never saw anything or anyone as above him.
He knelt in the dirt for an adulteress, he dined with a tax collector and saw greatness in fisherman.
He saw each person as valuable and worth eveything and he treated them as priceless.
Jesus lead with humility, patience and kindness. Shouldn’t we do the same?
I’m different then I used to be. Growing up I was shy and insecure, but knowing God changed that.
Knowing who is and who he made me to be gives me confidence, boldness and fearlessness, because I know who he is.
No matter where I go, he is with me. I’m never alone because he is with me, comforting me, inspiring me, teaching me, guiding me, protecting me, he is always with me. So I am never alone, and he is where I draw my confidence from, because I know who he is.
He loves each and everyone of us and he wants to do the same for us all. To show us who he is and who he made each of us to be.
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. -Ecclesiastes 11:7
Our eyes are naturally drawn to find light. We are meant to find light. If you close your eyes and then open them, your eyes will immediately go to the brightest thing. We seek out light, we add lamps to our homes and extra lights. Any good craftsmen will tell you they need good lighting to make their best product. We live our lives in light. Light helps us see where we are walking, where we are headed and where we’ve been. Light in some aspect is needed to do almost all things in life.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Why is there so much focus on the dark. We are meant to be creatures of light, not of darkness.
Things can be hidden in the dark, or misunderstood, but in the light they shine their true nature. Our eyes can be deceived easily in the dark, to see things that are not really there, or misinterpret things to be something other then what they are.
Worship can change everything, our attitude, our demeanor, our perspective and our mood. Worshiping God shifts our focus from our problems to his possibilities, his strength, his power and his provision.
God changes everything and that why we worship him. Because he saves us, he changes us and turns all thing out for good.
So whatever your dealing with surrender it to God. Give it over to him surrender and let him be your solution.
The days when you’re weak and tired are the days we need Jesus more then ever.
When we are at our weakest He is our strength, our energy, our wisdom, our everything. He provides all we need because He is all we need.
So no matter how tired or exhausted you are, know that He is all you need.
Seek Him and let Him be your everything.
We aren’t meant to blend in.
We are supposed to be different, so that people can see our witness in our words, our actions and reactions. We are to lay down our lives for Jesus as he did for us.
Sounds impossible, but it isn’t.
I can’t tell you how many times I didn’t want to get out of bed and go to work, like I’m sure many of you have too. But I did it anyway.
But just because I started my day off rough doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.
I’ve found that using my drive to work as a time to fix my eyes on Jesus makes a big difference by the time I get to work. I usually have worship music or sermons from podcasts playing as I get ready in the morning and on my drive to work. I call it Driving with Jesus. I ask Jesus to teach me something and He always does. Sometimes He uses a song or a sermon, and sometimes He uses people walking on the street or the landscape of my drive.
But He always changes my perspective and attitude by the time I get to work, if I let Him give me a perspective change. See many of our problems and issues stem from just seeing the problem from our own earthly perspective. But when we allow Jesus to show us His perspective He changes our view of things.
When you surrender your life and your day to God he changes your perspective and transforms your mind to see like He sees and think like He thinks. So let Jesus drive and enjoy the passenger seat of life’s road.
Jesus makes me brave. The love and protection I know He has for me, makes me know that I can move mountains and nothing can stand against me because God is for me.
If He has called you to something or someone nothing can stand in your way God will protect and provide for you to do what He has called you to.
No matter what your facing or how impossible it seems or even if you feel surrounded, remember the God of heaven is backing you, He surrounds those that surround you, He is on your side.
David knew he could defeat Goliath because God had anointed him to be king and he wasn’t king yet, he was still just a shepherd boy. We can stand on the promises God has given us.
He calls each one of us to a mission, He has deemed for us, and nothing can stop us as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in the pursuit of that which He has called us too.
No matter how impossible a situation, if God has called you to it, He will make a way.
That’s why He make me brave.
That’s why I stand up for God, because he stands up for me.
