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.
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.
Even on my worst days I know one thing is true.
Jesus is everything I need.
I can go to him and ball my eyes out in frustration, scream, yell and be completely open, honest and transparent with him because he aleady knows everything I’m going through.
There’s comfort in being able to talk to him about anything and everything whether good or bad, whether I’m encouraged or discouraged when I come to him.
I know that after I have spent time with him that I will come out loved and comforted. Becuae he is always there for me know matter what. Anytime anywhere he is there for me.
So give God your stuff, all your junk, your frustrations and let him give you the peace that surpasses understanding.
I had the pleasure of meeting Pastor Henry Convington and his wife Annette of I Am My Brothers Keeper in Detroit, Mi years ago. So I was excited to learn more of their story when I saw the movie Have a Little Faith.
Pastor Covington life was a great example of the complete transformation that Jesus makes in our life. He was a drug dealer and addict until he hit his rock bottom and surrendered his life to Jesus.
Jesus is always there for us and he wants to take care of us but we have a choice. We can choose to live however we want and ignore him or we can choose to follow him and trust him to take care of us.
Pastor Covington hustled for what he thought he wanted and it almost cost him his life. But when he turned his life to Jesus instead of taking from people, God gave him the opportunity to give to others.
Don’t be afraid to do what God has asked of you, trust that he has you taken care of and will never fail you.
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.
The tiniest spark can start a whole blaze.
The Holy Spirit works the same way, he sparks a fire and a passion in us to share God’s love with people but we have to fan the flame, nurture it and help it grow. If we snuff it out then we have to keep restarting that spark.
God gave me the verse Jeremiah 20:9
A long time ago to remind me that even though I turned my back on him once that I won’t do it again. But I need to fan the flame each day, I need to fuel the fire he put in me.
By spending time with him, by fixing my eyes on Jesus and asking him to teach me something new each day.
What fire has God started in your heart? Are you snuffing it out or are you feeding the fire he put in you?
Sometimes all we need is to just sit in Gods presence and breathe. Just let all our troubles melt away and bath in God’s presence.
When you feel defeated, knocked down, like no one is in your corner. Jesus is always there for you. He always has your back. He will go to bat for you because He already did when lived a sinless life and died to pay for our mistakes.
He’s forever on our side.
Jesus is always there for us.
We can always talk to Him. He will always listening, because He loves us.
He loves us so much that He gave everything for us. He gave every second of everyday for us. He gave up His life for US!
He’s forever on our side.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree and to work in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, I ask you too, my true companion, to help these women [to keep on cooperating], for they have shared my struggle in the [cause of the] gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. ~Philippians 4:2-3
Why do we have disagreements within the church body? I’m not talking about the big theological debates. More about the simple things like how the Christmas decorations get set up.
Why do we let these things bother us? Was it really our decision in the first place or are we giving our opinion. If it is our opinion, is that what we should be focused on?
Isn’t our role in the church to be the body of Jesus to help each other, not hinder.
Have we asked Jesus His opinion on the matter? Or are we just blazing forward without regard for God’s opinion.
You may think He doesn’t care about the little things, or that your perfectly capable of making that decision without Him; but should we be doing things without Him? Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
Jesus can make the simplest thing simpler or the most boring thing enjoyable.
Make every moment a moment to deepen your relationship with Him.
If doing something simple and boring is more fun with a friend; and He is the funnest friend ever. Then shouldn’t we want to do everything with Him.
Jesus is always seeking you, always pursuing you, always longing for you. He is always happy to see you, speak to you, share His love for you, with you.
You don’t have to clean up your act, or get to a better place to come to Him.
Go to Him anywhere, in any state; because He will go to you anywhere, in any state.
Just surrender to Him and let His love wash over you.
He is always there longing to be with you. He always wants to have relationship with you.
He always wants you.
All, all of us ever want is to be loved. To have a safe place where we know we can be open and vulnerable about our troubles, hurts and wounds.
Jesus is that safe place.
We can always go to Him about anything, anytime. He is always there for us, He always wants to talk to us, to love us and to heal us.
People often fear going to God in the hard times because they think they have to clean themselves up first.
But that’s not true.
Jesus wants us just a we are. What would be the point of going to Him for help if we thought we had to fix everything first.
He already knows everything, you won’t catch Him off guard.
Is chasing your dream worth the sacrifices you have to make to achieve your goal? What compromises will you make to get there? Who will you when you achieve your goal? Will your goal make you who you want to be? Or will chasing your goal change who you are?
When we chase our own goals, we often make compromises or sacrifice integrity to take shortcuts to achieve it. Many times when we achieve that goal we may lose who we wanted to be by achieving that very goal.
When we let go of our goals and trust God He surprises us with something beyond what we thought possible.
Every time I have tried to make my own goals or success it has not turned out as I have planned. The result of my goal has been less satisfactory then I had hoped for or I compromised who I was to achieve that goal. Nevertheless it has never left me feeling satisfied.
But when I follow God’s leading and look to the interest of others, I have never been disappointed.
It’s easy to get caught up in ourselves but so much more rewarding to serve and achieve the goals that God has laid on our hearts.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: (emphasis added)
If we have found encouragement, comfort, love, tenderness and compassion from Jesus.
Then we are supposed to bring joy to Him by being liked minded with Him, by sharing that same love with others, by following the Holy Spirit, by humbling ourselves and valuing others above ourselves.
If you haven’t found these things in Jesus, then I ask have you been seeking Him?
We cannot be these things to others if we do not first know them from Him. Its hard to give out what you haven’t received.
Seek God, learn His character, know His words and His actions. If we know Him we can tell others about Him, but if we don’t know Him how can we expect to show others.
“I could sing of your love forever” is a classic worship song from my youth. It’s one that I sing often, it’s kind of my happy song, whenever I’m having a moment of spontaneous worship this song 0ften comes to mind.
It reminds me that no matter what, I could sing of His love forever.
He has never abandoned me, never left me and never stopped loving me, even in my darkest moments, He was there and He’s there is my happiest moments. Whether I’m in a valley or on the mountain top I can always sing of His love, because His love never changes.
I gave my life to Jesus because I tried doing life without him, I tried being happy without Him and it didn’t work. There was always something missing something I was striving for that I couldn’t grasp.
But life with Jesus is simpler, peaceful, and joy filled.
Don’t think I don’t have bad moments, I do, but those moments are the one where I don’t have Him in mind.
But it never fails that when I turn to Him, He shows me the sunshine through the rain. He shines bright and shows me where He is in that moment and He changes my perspective to find the joy in the sadness.
I heard a Pastor say once “unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
When we hold on to unforgiveness it grows into bitterness and resentment. We think we are hurting the other person because they hurt us, but most of the time the other person doesn’t even know they hurt us.
By holding onto it we just hurt ourselves more.
But by choosing to forgive we extend the same grace God gave us to them. it His grace not our ours and who are weto withhold His grace from someone.
Forgiveness is freeing.
Remember how you felt when you accepted Gods forgiveness, it’s the same when we forgive others.
So why would you choose to hold yourself back from that freedom?
None of us are beyond saving. We all have the opportunity to feel free and find new life in Jesus.
The beauty of His sacrifice is that when He died, we died.
“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
When we try to live without Jesus we are always striving to feel worthy, valued, loved and wanted.
But Jesus sacrifice already paid our debts and He gives us our worth and our value. He sees us as priceless, that’s why He gave His life for us. So that we could stop striving and start living in Him.
No matter you’ve done or how unworthy you feel, God will always see you as priceless and worthy because of His sacrifice, if we accept it.
The movie War Room is about the power of prayer. But what is prayer? And how do you do it? There are so many that think it has to be perfectly worded, like it was a magic spell or something.
But prayer is simply a conversation between you and God. It doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating, just a simple conversation.
So what is that conversation about or for? Prayer is to develop our relationship with God as any conversation does. We can talk to Him about anything and everything. Prayer helps us to know God better so that we can see things through His perspective, so we can choose to let Him change us to be more like Him.
Prayer should be a constant in our lives just as we stay in communication with our closest loved ones, God wants to stay in constant communication with us, but we don’t need a device to do it.
You can pray in the line at the grocery store or at your desk at work or even while changing your kids diaper. The point is, you can have a conversation anywhere, anytime, while doing anything. He is always there, always wanting to talk, all you have to do is allow Him in. And don’t forget to listen!
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. ~Ephesians 1:5
Amazing to think that God knew us even before you were born and he decided before then to make us part of His plan.
We are not a mistake, we were thought of by the creator of the universe before we were even born. That’s how important we are to God.
Stop thinking no one cares or you’re not important because it’s simple not true. Each and everyone of us is precious to God.
Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Worship crosses all boundaries, language and cultural. We all have the capacity to worship God.
It doesn’t matter if we know the words to a song, if we like the style of the music, if we’re rich or poor, what we look like or where we grew up. We all can worship.
Worship is about putting God first in our hearts. It’s about surrendering to Him and giving Him the glory.
It doesn’t matter where we are or who we’re with we can worship God anywhere anytime, with anyone anywhere in the world. Because we are all His children and He loves each of us.
We worship Him because of His who He is, not what He’s done for us. Just as He loves us not for what we’ve done but who we are to Him. His beloved creation.
Rehearsing over and over again our mistakes in our head just allows guilt and shame to have control over us. Even rehearsing the wrong doings of others against us gives them power over us. When we allow these things to dictate our decisions we give them control over us.
But when we surrender them over to Jesus and accept His grace for us and for them, we find freedom.
When we die to ourselves and allow God to live through us, His love and His grave cover our mistakes so that we can be free of guilt and shame, because we are dead and the dead can’t be offended, guilty or ashamed.
Instead we can rejoice in the freedom, joy and peace of God’s grace.
Surrender over to God whatever is holding you back, whatever you think you did or you are, that stops you from being who God made you to be.
Free and forgiven.
Star Wars is a great example of the battle of good and evil we all face.
Selfish choices, even if they are for someone else, they change who we are for the worse are not worth it. We devalue the person we are trying to protect because we compromise ourselves to do it.
Anakin changed the selfless path he was on, to save Padmé but his decision to compromise actually ended up being what harmed her.
Even in what seems to be the worst circumstances we need to trust God to lead us out of it.
God knows us and knows what best for us, His plans is not to harm us but to give us a hope and a future.
I can’t even count the number of times God has brought me through valleys.
Losing our faith in Him is what got us into the valley and it will never help us move forward.
There is a story about a servant carrying two pots from the river each day to bring water to his master. One pot is broken and only brings half the water from the river that the other pot carries. But along the path the servant planted wildflowers for the broken pot to water as he carried it.
Jesus does the same in our lives he uses our brokenness to pour out His life giving water. He fills us up so that we can water the seeds in others that he has planted along our path.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ~Colossians 3:16
We as believers in Jesus are meant to teach and encourage each other, but we need to make sure we are teaching what Jesus has taught us, not what the world has taught us.
How do we separate the two, how do we know what God is teaching us and what we’ve learned from the world.
By asking the Holy Spirit and testing what we’ve learned against these verses.
AND
God is the one we can always count on. We don’t have to do or be anything to come to him.
We can be in our worst state and he is there for us. No matter how tired or exhausted we are, he is not looking for deeds to earn his love and attention, just our hearts surrendered o Him.
Don’t worry about accomplishments. Just go to Him, He’s happy just to spend time with you.
The love of God transform us. It gives us boldness, strength and confidence in the toughest moments. God’s love not only cancels fear, it removes it. God’s love is all encompassing.
It gave David the strength to face Goliath, Daniel the stamina to face the lion den and Shadrach, Mesach and Abednigo the confidence to face the fire.
God’s love gives us all we need to face or overcome the trials we face in life. He gives us peace in the storm when we fix our eyes on Him. Like Peter walking on the water. When he had his gaze fixed on Jesus he was able to do what defied logic and understanding. But when Peter took his gaze off of Jesus and focused on the storm around him (his circumstances) he began to sink. So no matter what your surrounded by fix your gaze on Jesus and He’ll teach you to walk on the water and find peace that surpasses understanding.
God’s peace is not something you earn, but a gift he freely gives, if we will let Him provide it by trusting Him.
Jesus is always looking to bless us, to shower His love on us. We are the ones who hold Him back, by trying to keep control of our lives.
His blessings are peace of mind, peace in our heart and peace in our soul. By finding our confidence and identity in Him. He teaches us to be without fear or worry.
When you know who you are in Jesus, nothing can shake that and no one can take it.
So often we focus on the problem instead of the solution. Jesus is always the solution.
We all always just need more Jesus.
When were having ‘bad day’ and cant get out of our own funky mood, we need more Jesus.
When someone is getting on our nerves and we don’t know why, we need more Jesus.
When were in a circumstance and don’t know what to do we need more Jesus.
Jesus is the solution.
He can bring us joy and peace on the ‘bad days’, he can show us what is really bothering us and helps us find he root cause, and he can change circumstances.
We all always just need more Jesus.
He’s our attitude adjustment, our perspective changer and he can move mountains.
Because we all just need more JESUS!
God knows us. He knows every single thing about us down to the number of hairs on our head.
And he loves us, knowing all our faults.
But that’s not how he sees us, he sees all that we could be, he sees what he intended us to be. He sees our full potential.
There is no reason to fear God knowing you because that is what makes him love you. He sees each of us a unique and special to him and we are all valuable.
So if you want to feel loved, valued, desired, cared for and known then seek God and let him show you all that he made you to be.
We all need a place where we can go to refresh, a safe place to let go of all our worries and concerns and just feel restored.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is that place.
In God’s presence we can let go of everything (because he already knows everything) just let his presence refresh and restore us, energize us and renew our passion.
No matter what’s going on, how, stressed or busy we are, we need to make the time for his presence.
Because the presence of the Holy Spirit is that place of vulnerability where we can be real and raw, we don’t have to hide anything because he knows everything and we can pour out our souls and be made whole in him.
The best part about Jesus is that he is what we are not. So when we say we do it feel like, that’s ok, we don’t have to, because he is what we are not. He is our strength, our peace and our joy.
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 him, to fix our eyes on what draws us closer to him not further from him. We 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 intentions was to have us fix ourselves, then why did he sacrifice his life for us.
Don’t say we’ll that 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.
I love watching movies and having God teach me something through them. The Lion King has so many moments that are teachable. Simbas overall life lesson is what caught my attention this time.
He tried to run from his problems, only to find out later that he didn’t even do what caused him to run. Many of us do this especially when we are kids, we run and hide thinking the consequences will be worse then they actually are or that our parents couldn’t possible forgive us. But things always go so much better when we own up to our actions and deal with the consequences.
We often do this with God, we run and hide from Him. Thinking that He could never forgive us or that He doesn’t love us or want us, because we messed up.
But nothing could be further from the truth. He loves us no matter what, He knows that we will make mistakes and He has already forgiven us.
Once we realize this, we can find freedom and become who He made us to be and come in our inheritance like Simba because we are God’s kids and He has so much He wants to bless us with.
God can speak to us in ways we may not expect, if we look for him.
While watching a popular sci-fi TV show he brought this quote to my attention. “To resist the influence of others, knowledge of ones self is important.”~Tealc
It’s easy to be influenced by whatever is around us, if we don’t know who you are. But how do you know who you are?
First we are all God’s children. Each one of us is important, valued and loved by him. We are his kids and heirs to his throne. Once we know who we are to him, he can begin to show us each how unique and special he has made each one of us.
That knowledge of who he made us to be, is what we can stand on when our identity is attacked.
Sounds exhausting right, and it is, if your try to do and be these things on our own. But that’s not what God intends.
He wants to be these thing in us and through us.
When we give our lives to him he lives in us, that’s why we die to ourselves (not literally, spiritually) We let Jesus live through us.
But we have to nurture that relationship and feed it. By reading his word, talking with him and surrounding ourselves with what draw us closer to God not further away.
The more time we spend with God, the more we know him the more he pours out of us.
It breaks my heart when I hear people say that God can’t use them, because they are too old, too young, too poor, too shy, too broken, too busy.
As long as there are people who don’t know Jesus, God can use you.
We all have something to share, God changed our lives some way some how and we can share that.
The old have years of experience to share, decades of how Jesus has impacted their lives, the young have faith that can move mountains, the broken can share how God healed them, the busy can invest in those that keep them busy and anyone can give.
We can all be used by God.
God gives us our identity before we are even born, we are sons and daughter of him, because of Jesus sacrifice he made us co-heirs with him.
But when we face problems in life, it’s often easier to run away from our problems and believe what others says about us, instead of staying and fighting for what is ours.
Like in The Lion King, when Simba lets Scar take his birth right of ruling Pride Rock because he believe the lies of who Scar says he is and goes and lives with Timon and Pumba while it is fun for a while, he isn’t fulfilling his true purpose.
We are the same we can try to find our identity in our work, our friends, our family. But we will never really feel truly fulfilled until we find our identity in Jesus because he designed us to only be fulfilled by him.
Have you ever meet someone truly fearless? Those that never back down from a challenge, nothing seems to worry them or catch them off guard.
Imagine if you had the grandest, most cunning, most skilled, undefeated warrior backing you up. What would you ever be afraid of?
That’s what we have when Jesus lives in us. He is our defender and our strength. He gives us the confidence to face giants and the fearlessness to concur mountains.
Knowing who we are in Jesus, that we are God’s kids and who he made us to be and what he call us to do, gives us that confidence to fight fearlessly to be and do what he’s called us to. Because if he’s called us to something he will provide and protect and back us up.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Jesus was not a back up plan, he is God, he is creation, he is the very word that created us.
He loves us and in loving us gave us choice. For it would not be love if we were forced. God is gentle and he will never force us into anything we do not choose. We make choices in life that either brings us closer to him or further away from him.
He knew we would make mistakes and he planned from the very beginning to sacrifice himself for us, to make a way for us to come back into right relationship with him.
Jesus choose us because he loves us. We either choose to accept his sacrifice or we don’t but in choosing we also choose to let him love and forgive us or we choose not to.
