One of the greatest life lessons I’ve learned was that I’m not above anything or anyone.
Years ago I worked at the church I grew up in, as an administrative assistant. The senior pastor helped me learn this lesson by the way he led.
He always said that he was not above anything, even down to picking up a gum wrapper off of the ground. Yes there were janitorial staff, but he was there so why wouldn’t he.
Photo by Forest Simon on Unsplash
He modeled this everyday, he was always willing to stop whatever he was doing to help someone and he never shied away from helping set-up or tear down, he was always the last to leave and the last to eat.
I’ve applied this lesson everywhere in my life, by seeing myself as there to serve, in the workplace, in my home and in life. When I see an opportunity to help, I help. This has helped me to not become bitter or resentful more times then I can count.
Jesus considered himself a servant. So how can I consider myself above Jesus.
When you see opportunities to serve or help, look at them as opportunities to shine Jesus.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. -John 15:1-8
REMAIN IN JESUS. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, that means that He bears the weight of us, He nourishes us, feeds us, waters us and roots us.
Without Him we are dead branches.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in knowledge that we actually ignore meaning. We become so focused on retaining the information that we don’t think about what it means.
Often, when we grow up in church, we hear phrases like “He is the vine, we are the branches” and we gloss over it.
But Jesus is the vine. That means we can do nothing for Him, without Him. Have you ever seen a branch on the ground bear fruit without being attached to the vine?
Jesus is the vine and He provides more for us then just food, water and shelter. He gives us life, confidence, love, peace, patience. I could go on…
He provides everything for us.
Anytime I’m having a bad day it’s because I didn’t go to Jesus for nourishment. I can have the same exact day and if I started my day with nourishment (wisdom, guidance, strength, patience) from Jesus, I will not have a bad day. Because He is with me, He lifts me up to bear fruit instead of fear.
Life without Jesus produces fear, fear of the unknown, fear of survival. Wondering, how you will provide? Why else would we go to work, but to provide for ourselves and our families.
But when we are in the vine, Jesus takes care of all your needs so we can bear fruit.
When we remain in Jesus, focused on him, letting him live through us. Bearing fruit becomes a bi-product of our relationship with him. Have you ever had a friend that just encourages you to be kinder, nicer and more generous then you would if you were alone. That’s Jesus. When we allow him to be our focus we will help that stranger, pick-up that piece of trash, put others before ourselves, because that is who Jesus is and that is bearing fruit.
It’s easy to be nice to people who are nice to you. But to be nice to people who are mean, rude and completely against you is hard let alone to actually bless and pray for them.
How would you want someone to treat you if they caught you in one of your worst moments when you’re maybe sick or exhausted and irritable. We all have our best and worst moments and our one interaction with the nicest person may be the worst moment in their life and all they need is a smile or a bit of kindness to help them through.
What about the people we interact with regularly that rub us the wrong way. Being rude and mean back isn’t going to make things better. But if we pray for them and ask Jesus to show us how he sees them. It will help us to see the with the compassion he does.
Jesus endured the cross for every single person in humanity and who are we to deny them that free gift of salvation. Jesus changed us when we gave our life to him he can do the same for them.
He will show us how he see each person as valuable, important and loved. If we ask
By sharing that love with those that curse us we shine his light even brighter.
We can be in the worst mood with the worst outlook but if we shift our focus to him, he changes the atmosphere. We don’t have to try to change or try to be different, we simply have to let him live through us.
When we surrender everything to him, he show us his plan and his way. Which is always so much better then ours.
Let’s stop striving in life and let the one who created the entire universe direct our steps, our mood and our life.
God’s love is for everyone, rich, poor, sad happy, angry or calm. You don’t have to fit a certain mold or criteria to be loved by Him. He made us each unique on purpose. He is the creator. You need only to look at the variety of plants or animals to see His love for diversity. What He asks of us is that we love Him back and love others.
That encompasses everything, if we accept His love, He shows us and gives us love overflowing to love ourselves and to love others.
Jesus had a habit of taking peoples biggest mistakes and using them to help others. Zacchaeus stole money and when he chose to change for Jesus he gave money away.
He took my mistakes and bad choices and gave me a heart for people who have done the same. He gave me a passion to see people find their worth and value in Jesus. Something I struggled with my whole life until I came to know him personally.
Jesus is in the redemption business. He’s not looking for perfect people. He’s looking to love people right where they are, to pull them up out of their mess so they can help others find that same redemption.
He looks at us and sees our potential and we need to do the same with others and see their potential in him.
We are bombarded every day all day from every direction by things that try to tell us who we are, what we should do or who we should be.
But our identity should be in Jesus.
This video is one of the most healing videos I have ever watched. Listen to it and let God tell you who he made you to be. I hope it brings you as much hope and comfort as it has me. Enjoy!
In order to reach the mountain tops in life we need to be equipped to handle them. Experienced mountain climbers train for month to reach the peak of mountain tops and some make sacrifices to achieve their goals.
God is the same with us. He will led us up the mountain, but he must equip us to handle the conditions at the top first.
Ask him each day what he wants to teach you? And know that even if you don’t always understand it, trust that he’s preparing you for your next mountain top moment.
Fear can control us, if we let it. But God does not desire for us to be ruled by fear.
Fear limits us and confines us to the familiar, fear keeps us locked in our comfort zone and keeps us from experiencing all that God has for us.
He made us to live in his love and his power, but how do we achieve that?
Self-control.
God loves us so much that he gave us choice, the freedom to choose his love or not. In choosing his love he gives us the power to conquer fear, to say that we will not be ruled fear, but will choose to let his love define us.
It’s his love that says my God is bigger then my circumstances and I trust God to take care of all I need and more because I know who he is.
“We may feel small, weak, incapable, ill-equipped, lacking in articulation. None of this matters. Frequently, all the obedience God requires of us is simply showing up. He does the rest. When we see a need, we go to it, reach out a hand and wait. Father comes into that situation. He expresses Himself through us. All we needed to do was be there, because He has no physical hands or feet on the earth except yours and mine.”
~Heidi Baker
A lot of fear about telling people about Jesus is that we don’t know what to say or what to do. The beauty of a relationship with the Holy Spirit is that He tells us what to say, He tells us what to do.
The Holy Spirit knows each of us intimately, He knows what we need when we need it.
We simple need to be willing to be used by God to convey His words and His actions to them. To be a willing vessel.
Something a friend of mine taught me is that we are all different parts of the body of Jesus.
You may have heard this many times.
But he explained it that since we are all different parts, different aspects of God expressed though all of us. God is so vast that it takes all of humanity to express Him. We each reveal Him in different ways.
Some show God’s relentless love and compassion for humanity. Some show His willingness to stop everything, to show love to the poorest soul on the planet, and some show unrelenting faith by forgiving endlessly.
All you need to do is look at the many varieties of flowers or trees to see just a small glimpse of how complex God is.
All of creation cries out to glorify God and we are part of that creation meant to express Him.
We as Christians are all the body of Jesus and we have all of Him but some characteristics of Him are stronger in you then they are in me. That’s why we need each other. To be the hands and feet of Jesus together!
Beauty is something we all seek. We seek it in others, in possessions or ourselves. But what is beauty?
Beauty comes from God. You need only look at his creation to see his beauty; the multitude and variety of flowers and trees alone shine his authorship of beauty.
So how do we attain this beauty? Is it through adornments? Or is it something else? You wouldn’t hang an earring on a flower and say you improved it. Nor do adornments make us truly more beautiful. No true beauty shines from within.
Beauty is Jesus shinging from within us as he does through all his creation.
Some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met are not what society would deem beautiful outwardly, but they shine Jesus with all that they are, and that’s true beauty.
How many times have you wished you could have a fresh start, a clean slate?
You can, when you accept Jesus sacrifice you get a clean slate, he wipes away all your past mistakes and starts you fresh and the best part is you an have a fresh start everyday.
From the moment you choose to follow Jesus, you can have a fresh start.
Jesus died so that we would not have to be bogged down by your past mistakes. So that we wouldn’t have to feel guilt, shame and condemnation.
He came to set us free.
Jesus makes us new in him. We die to our old ways, our old habits and our old mindset and take on his mind.
You don’t have to be what you used to be you don’t have to be restrained to your past you can be set free.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 joybecause 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 guard and the other prisoners. And his boldness encouraged the believers outside to spur on 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.
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.
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.
Why is there so much focus on the dark today in media. 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 some thing other then what they are.
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.
Photo by Anika Huizinga on Unsplash
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.
Faith can be hard for so many people, because if they can’t see it right in front of them its not there. But faith in Jesus isn’t ambivalent. It’s trust in who He is. Think of the person in this world that you trust the most. You know them and you trust them because you know who they are and that you can depend on them.
It’s the same with Jesus. We have faith in Him to be there for us not only because of what He’s already done but because we know Him. We know his character and track record. We have faith in him because we trust Him to be who He has already shown us He is. Loving, sacrificial and forgiving.
Why do we always think we have to clean ourselves up before we go to God? That’s the very reason Jesus came, to make us clean and pure and new creations in Him. We can try our hardest to do everything perfect and it still wouldn’t be enough.
We need to stop striving to get God’s approval and love. He gives freedom from guilt and shame freely, because He love us.
When we are at our worst, our weakest our most vulnerable and we know nothing else but to surrender and let Him lead. That’s when He shines the brightest. When we get our own selves out of the way and depend on Him.
We just need to surrender to him, and remember on the days we feel the worst He is the best.
When the Israelites left Egypt they didn’t know where they were going. It can seem the hardest to trust God when we don’t now where He’s leading us, but even in the times of uncertainty He will give us rest.
To have good rest we need to have peace, but its hard to have peace when we’re uncertain. But that’s the beauty of God’s peace it surpasses understanding. We don’t have to know all the answers and He can still give us peace.
My husband and I have moved more times then the number of years we have been married, and we didn’t always know all the details but each time we knew it was God’s timing and that He had a plan and purpose for our move, even if we didn’t know what that plan was. Each time He gave us a peace about it.
Rest is part of that peace, when we trust God’s plan and His timing we can rest in knowing He’s got this. And that rest might be what we need in order to take care of what He’s got ahead for us.
How would you want 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 latter. 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, to choose to be loving and gentle; to be vulnerable.
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.
God is who we draw our confidence and sometimes our feeling of invincibility from. When know who we are as His kids, who He has made us to be and what He’s called us to do. It gives us a firm foundation to stand on, to know that the creator of the universe has got our back.
Imagine if everywhere we went and with everything we did, we had a fifty foot angel standing behind us backing us up, giving us support and encouragement. That’s what it’s like when we trust God to lead us, but even better. Even a fifty foot angel fails in comparison to God and He is with us all the time.
We are never alone if we have Him by our side, if we look to Him for guidance, for the right words and for each step and each action each day. He created the universe, He can handle our daily schedule. And with Him, we can tackle what seems impossible, because nothing is impossible to him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s amazing how one turn can change your whole path.
One choice, one decision can change your direction and ultimately your destination.
When driving one wrong turn can send you in a completely different direction. You may pass by things you would have never seen or known before just because of one turn.
Our life is the same, one wrong decision can lead us into things we never thought we would say or do, we may feel trapped like there is no where else to go, all because of one decision.
But there is always a choice to turn around.
It may be hard, an up hill battle, you may face opposition, but the end destination changes from bad to good.
My life changed when I turned my back on Jesus and tried to live my life without him. I made bad choice, after bad choice, that led me to do things I once said I never would. I made compromises to try to attain my goals, eventually hitting my rock bottom.
It wasn’t until I hit my rock bottom, that I realized I needed Jesus. So I turned my life back to him and he pulled me out of the pit I had dug; almost instantaneously. It took time for me to fully surrender different areas of my life before he could heal the damage I had inflicted on myself, but he was there and is still there continuing to heal me as I surrender more and more to him.
You have a choice.
If you made one wrong choice or dozens God is always there waiting to show you his love, grace and compassion. He is always ready to help you turn around
In our current climate it’s easy to become worried and anxious but does worrying or having anxiety accomplish anything besides causing us stress. No.
We need to remember is there is a big difference between want and need but God always provides. As adults we all wish we could go back to a day before bills and responsibilities when all we needed was provided.
We can in a way, if we look to God to provide all we need. He will. He is our heavenly father and he loves to care for his kids.
Don’t be discouraged about wants either. He loves to bless his kids. You’ll be amazed at the blessings he provides when we seek him and put him first instead of worrying.
Our focus should always be on him first before anything, he sets our mood and attitude if we let him. When we start our day with him and let him permeate our whole day, he provides all we need. Trust him and let him relieve all your stress. Don’t worry God’s got this.
God knows and cares about every little aspect of our lives. He is our heavenly father and if earthly parents care about the little things, how much more does God care.
I’ve heard it said ‘God is to busy’ or ‘he doesn’t care about every little detail’ but you need only to look at the complexity of creation to see that he is meticulous he cares more then we ever could about every singe little detail. To the point of knowing the number of hair on our heads.
God cares about you, he loves you and he wants every moment of everyday with you. He wants to go to the grocery store with you, to pick up your kids from school, to go to your job with you. Spending every moment of everyday with God doesn’t mean that we stop living it means that he is there and in every aspect of it. He is there to help us, to guide us, to uplift and encourage us.
God knowing every little detail of your life isn’t about judgement it’s because he loves us.
Let God in every aspect of your life and let him bear your burdens. With him your never have to feel alone, scared or worried again because you always have the God of the universe by your side.
Everyone represents something. Their friends, family, company, beliefs, theology. We all represent something, whether it be our own thought process or someone else’s. No matter what you do, who you are and what makes you that way, will shine though eventually, even if you try to hide it.
God is like that in our lives, when we choose to follow him even if we try to hide it, he will shine through in our actions, our smile, the way we treat others.
We have to make a concise effort to hide his light. Even if we put it under a basket, light will shine out through the weaving or a bowl, light will shine out the edge.
There are many reason we hide our faith in God, worry, fear, anxiety, safety. The first three can be combated by knowing God more, knowing who he made you to be and allowing him to give you the words the confidence and the wisdom in shining his light.
Those that fear for there safety, literally for their lives, if they share their faith. These people are the ones who shine the brightest, like Brother Yun or David Hogan those that have had their life threatened multiple times and still shine for Jesus. They and others like them shine God’s light because they know who they are and the value, the power and the love of God and that gives them no fear.
Although I do not have to hide my faith daily, I have had moments on a mission trip when our teams life was threatened. And in that moment, not single one of us wavered, we knew the risk of sharing about Jesus where we were going and God gave us the boldness to shine for him without a moments hesitation.
That’s who God is he shines through us in ways we may never have imagined. Shine bright for him by knowing him.
The angels said ‘fear not.’ Often we shy away from God because we feel we don’t measure up, but that’s the beauty of why he came, to make us free of shame and guilt and to know him deeply.
Jesus choose humble beginnings, lived humbly and counted not even his own life beyond sacrifice. He held back nothing so that we could have everything.
His gift to us is salvation and righteousness so that we could live a life filled with his love joy and peace.
Our God is truly amazing. He can change our whole attitude and mindset with a few words. You can go from irritated, rushed, anxious and frustrated to complete peace without a single change to your circumstances, surroundings or workload.
God gives us peace by dwelling in us. When we bring God into the situation he changes our perspective or view of our circumstances so that we see things in a different light. Sometimes he even tells us a solution we never would of thought of on our own.
Trust in him in all things to bring peace to your heart and soul. Because when you know who he has made you to be and what his promises are, you can stand on those promises.
Like Peter walking on water when Jesus told him to. Peter did the impossible he walked on water and during a storm no less. Something that seems impossible, but he did it because he was focused on Jesus. It wasn’t until he changed his focus to the storm around him that he began to sink.
When you feel overwhelmed and like there is no end in sight. Look to Jesus and let his peace fill you. Trust him to provide and guide you through anything.
I’ve tried a lot and done a lot in my life. But nothing fulfills me as much as following God’s path for my life.
He called me to write and share about him and nothing makes me feel more alive then doing what he’s called me to do.
I cried tears of joy when he called me to ministry even though I had no idea how or in what capacity. That was over ten years ago and still to this day I get nervous before I have a speaking engagement, but that is what keeps me dependent on him.
Just because something God asks us to do is intimating or we are not sure if we can do it, doesn’t mean he won’t provide all we need and more to do what he has called us to do.
Find joy in him and he will provide all your needs
When we feel inadequate or less than, we just need more Jesus, because He is the best of us. His faith, His power, His love is enough, when we feel we are not. When God asks us to do something it’s not in our own strength, but in His and that makes all the difference.
So stop saying I can’t do it, I don’t know how, even I don’t want to, because He will give you the will, the wisdom and the passion to do what He has called you to do. We must simple do one thing.
Seek Him.
Spend time with Him, let Him fill us up.
Let Him work in and thru us to accomplish what He has called us to.
When we get hangry (angry, because we’re hungry) we get irritable and edgy, we snap at people for the littlest thing and react in ways we would not normally act.
But we are the same when we are starved for God, if we don’t get enough of God we get irritable, edgy and snap at people for the littlest thing.
We all have different degrees of hanger for God and we all display it a little different, but we all have the same issue we need more Holy Spirit in our life.
When you notice your not your self, realize that you just need more of God in your life and make a point of making him more a priority in your life. Take a moment and ask for his help, for more Holy Spirit in your life and surrender your self over to him.
In the same respect, when you encounter people that rub you the wrong way, look at them with a different perspective, that they just need Jesus in their life.
When we know God, who he’s made us to be and feel completely loved, accepted and valued by him, we don’t need others to show us our value because we know our value comes from him and its priceless.
