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What has self preservation cost you?

I find so much inspiration through movies. Different scenes and certain lines remind me of what Jesus did for us.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Eustace is transformed into a dragon because of his greed, but it leaves him in a precarious situation where he can’t interact with others like he used. In the end Eustace tries to remove the scales to return to being human, but he can’t do it on his own. He needs Aslan todo it for him. To shed his tough outer shell created by the decisions that transformed him in the first place.

We all do this in life. We seek to take care of ourselves and in the process build up an armor to protect us from others. But does it really help us or hinder us from having relationships with others.

We may be protected but we are alone.

Even a dragon with his thick armor can fall prey to attack, but when we allow others in to help us and protect us we aren’t alone anymore. Having a support system is so much better then doing it all on your own.

Jesus like Alsan wants to protect us, but we first have to be willing to let him in, to let him help us shed our old habits that got us where we are in the first place.

Saul is a great example of this he tried to achieve salvation through earning it. He followed ever rule but he was callus and hard, not allowing himself to see the truth of who Jesus was, the savior he had been waiting for his whole life. He was too wrapped up in trying to protect himself and others from who he thought was a false savior to see the truth. Until Jesus revealed himself to him. Paul was then humbled by his experience with Jesus as was Eustace, they both shed their old skin to find the truth in Jesus.

What facade have you put on to protect yourself?

What has it cost you to keep your outer shell of protection? Are you willing to pay the cost or are you ready to let Jesus to pay the cost for you and be your protector? Are you ready to not be alone anymore?

What is true BEAUTY?

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11a

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.

Let God Lead

For I, the Lord your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
I am the one who helps you.”

Isaiah 41:13

I’ve had a few seasons of struggling with finding intimacy with Jesus. As life changes so has my devotional time.

In one of these seasons I realized that the connection I was lacking at that time was because I wasn’t writing like I used to. Writing is part of who God has called me to be and it’s how He teaches me. It’s in that teaching that I grow closer to Him and learn more about Him.

God designed each of us and He has his own special way of connecting with each of us and revealing our identity in Him is the key to that.

We don’t need to fear Him and worry about our past neglect or inadequacies. We simply need to come to Him, hold His hand and let Him lead us.

You can’t surprise God

It’s easy to feel alone and like no one understands, because no one really knows what every moment of your life is like.

But God does…

…He knows because he is there with us whether we realize it or not. God is the only one who can and does understand. But we often feel afraid to go to Him because we’re worried about what He would think. But He already knows it all so there is really nothing we can hide from Him.

Even in knowing everything He loves us still.

We don’t have to be afraid of Him, because He is love. Nothing about God is something that we should ever fear.

Because God is love, He is joy, He is peace, He is patience, He is kind and He is good. So what about that is scary?

He is the one that we can always turn to no matter what.

So no matter what is running through your head or your heart you can’t surprise God. But you can let Him in.

Jesus name changes the atmosphere

Just the mention of Jesus name can change our whole attitude or view towards someone or something.

When we find someone who shares our same faith it brings us together and brings a smile to our faces. To have the opportunity to talk to someone about the one who changed our life.

We need to hold on to that and remember that there is the power in the name of Jesus.

Why do we think we don’t belong in church?

In the movie I Can Only Imagine Bart Millard invites his dad to go to church with him and his dad replies that “he doesn’t belong in church.”

This broke my heart and began to make me think how often this is our reason for not inviting people to church or that we’ve given ourselves.

But this is a misconception. The church is not four walls or an organization, the people are the church. Jesus destroyed the temple and rebuilt it in us. We are the temple. Jesus is inside us.

Saying that we don’t belong in church is true. We don’t deserve to have Jesus live inside us, none of us do. But that is the beauty of his sacrifice we don’t deserve it but he gives us the free gift of having him live inside us, not by earning it but by Jesus sacrifice for us he makes the way for us to be the church.

This means that when we encounter people we are bringing the church to them.

The next time you meet someone and think “I want to bring them to church.” Remember you already have. You’re right there in front of them (you are the church), tell them what Jesus has done for you and ask them if they would like him to do the same for them.

Church is anywhere we are, we don’t have to wait for Sunday or the right service. Jesus is in us all day every day and he wants all his children to know him.

Once you have introduced them to Jesus, then invite them to the gathering of other Christians.

~May all your interactions with others reflect Jesus

Jesus Gives Us a Clean Slate

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:20-24

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.

If you choose him!

You are valued

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Colossians 4:10-15

Each believer in Jesus has a part to play, each of us have something to share and to give, everyone of us is valuable. God uses the body as analogy for the body of believers because each part has a unique and different part in a fully functioning body.

We each are a part of Jesus and we each reveal him in different ways, and when we don’t show Jesus through us then we miss a part of him. He is so complex that it takes all o humanity to reveal him.

I am not called to do what he has chosen you to do and and you are not called to do what he has called me to do. He uses each of us in different and unique ways.

Whenever I encounter someone who I may not agree with or don’t get along with. I ask God to show me how he sees them, who he made them to be, and he changes my heart for them. He shows me his love for them and how he sees them.

When God started me on this journey of writing, I starting by writing my story and what he had done for me, but then he asked me to write his story. To do this I needed a heart for people which I did not have then. But over time he has developed that in me. To see each person as valuable and having great potential in his body. Because that’s how he sees each of us, as valuable.

No one is beyond

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.

Lead like Jesus

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.

Are you listening?

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.

Love is meant to GROW

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight

Philippians 1:9 NIV

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.

Love and acceptance

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.

Rest in a crumbling world

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.

Jesus Plan for Us is Worth the Wait

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.

Gentleness takes strength

What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

1 Corinthians 4:21

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.

What do you draw out in others?

To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Colossians 1:2

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 feel lost

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.

Never Alone in the Valley

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.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Claim Your Identity

The enemy will taunt us with our worst fears to discourage us from becoming who God has intended us to be.

The Return of the King movie depicts this when Aragon uses the seeing stone to fight Sauron by claiming his identity as the heir to the throne. Sauron replies by trying to scare him with the death of Arwen.

The enemy’s biggest weapon is fear. Fear of what if, of what might happen. But you can’t put your trust or your faith in what if.

You can put your faith in Jesus and draw your strength from your identity in him.

The enemy can’t have a hold on you, if you don’t let him.

We fight fear with truth. The enemy says you are ugly, God says you are beautiful. The enemy says you are weak, God says he will be your strength.

The truth of who God has made us to be is our strongest weapon, but we have to know it to use it.

When we die to our selfish desires and let Jesus live through us we become like him. Read the scriptures about Jesus, know who he is and what he said and did. Isaiah 61 is one of my favorite passage describing what Jesus came to do and be. Read it and let the Holy Spirit teach you who he made you to be in Jesus.

Let faith be bigger than your fear

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.

Serve like Jesus

Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:22-24

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.

Walking on Water

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.

Our stories

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.

What influences YOU?

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.

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Don’t forget to enjoy the journey

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.

God’s word is a feast for the soul

And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

Colossians 4:16

Sharing what God teaches us with others is how we grow. We are meant to share with each other. When we read the word of God we should be getting something out of it, it is a feast for our souls. Even if we read the same verse for an entire year God will still teach us through that verse or if we feast on a whole book or chapter He can teach us just as much through a verse as He does the whole Bible if we let him.

That’s the miracle that He is, He can sustain us on little or a lot, but we must always be looking to learn and to grow. It’s not about quantity but about quality.

What are we learning from? What we are trying to absorb? If we read just to read and don’t understand is it really helping us?

Seek God, ask Him for a verse or a chapter or a book and read it till He tells you to move on. Fall in love with the word of God and let it feed your soul.

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My will or HIS

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.

Sacrifice and Conversation

What sacrifices are you willing to make for the gospel? Are you willing to sell all that you own and move half way around the world to share the good news. Thousands of missionaries around the world have done just that. They have uprooted there families and moved to reach people groups that God has laid on their hearts to reach.

Why are so many willing to make this kind of sacrifice. Because the good news changes you. It gives you a second chance and a third and a fourth. The good news is that Jesus came to sacrifice his life for us so that everyone in all of humanity could be forgiven. We sacrifice because he sacrificed, because the he gift he gives is unmatched.

His forgiveness gives us the opportunity to have relationship with him every moment of every day. A line of He Lives by Nicole C. Mullen says “I talked with him this morning” because she did, because I did. Having a relationship with Jesus is accepting his sacrifice and forgiveness. This relationship lets us talk with God every moment of everyday. We just have to listen.

Sometimes he’ll just remind you of the little things in life like to stop and smell the roses, sometimes the big thing in life like asking you to move half way around the word. Whether it’s big or its small you have to talk to him to know. You can’t build a relationship without conversation. The faith to do the big things comes from the days of talking about the little things.

Start the conversation, read your bible and ask him to explain a verse you don’t understand, watch a Christian movie (try “End of the Spear“) and ask him to teach you something through it, take a walk and asks him about his creation, watch your kids play and ask him to teach you something about them.

Talk to God you never know what he might say.

Other Believers

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.

Just need more Jesus

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,

Colossians 1:9

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.

We are never beyond God’s love

God’s love can change our worst moment, a bad mood or the direst of circumstances. Just by allowing him to shift our perspective. If the apostle Paul can worship in prison and Steven can forgive those that are stoning him. Shifting our focus to God can change the atmosphere, our perspective and our attitude. Fix our eyes on Jesus isn’t always about changing where we are at rather its changing our focus onto him.

So when we feel lost or stuck, unwanted or unworthy we can always turn to Jesus. No matter how long its been, how bad we feel, regardless of what is around us, his perspective can change it all.

So ask Jesus: What do you want to be for me now? How do you see this?

These are some of my favorite questions to ask God. Because I know I can always turn to him; trust him.

It’s easy for us to get into moments where we think we aren’t worthy to talk to him or to go to him. But he always wants to talk to us, be there for us and love us. He sees us at our worst moments and stills says:

I love you, come to me.

We can’t earn his love, favor or grace, but he gives it to us freely. We just have to allow him in, allow his love to wash over us, to change our view, our attitude and our perspective.

Blessing in Suffering

Even in the trials of life God has blessings for us. Jesus said:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

To find peace in the trials of life we have to keep fixed on Jesus not our circumstances.

God always wants to bless us and provide all we need and more but if we get lost in our suffering we block him out.

It’s only when we fix our eyes on Jesus despite our suffering that’s when he can be the peace beyond understanding for us and help us find joy.

A still small whisper

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

1 Kings 19:11-12

God was in the gentle whisper. He speaks to us in many ways and one way is through others. Whenever I read this verse it reminds me of the scene in The Nativity Story when one of the ladies in the village where Mary lives tells the village kids this story.

She’s teaching them the different ways God speaks us.

God speaks to us through our surroundings, through nature, through visions and dreams, through others and he speaks directly to us. (more about how God speaks to us)

Often people think that God doesn’t speak to them because they didn’t hear a loud, booming audible voice. But don’t you think we would all be a little freaked out if that was the only way he spoke to us.

God desires a deep intimate relationship with each one of us and to do that he whispers to us, but we have to listen.

Jesus is Our Fresh Start

Our lives must become a fitting response to His love. ~Heidi Baker

You can never have enough of God. We need to make him part of everything, everyday. He created the universe he can plan our day or show us the best way to handle life’s curveballs, he can fill us with all that we need and overflow us so that when the hard times in life come all that pours out is Him.

The beauty of Jesus sacrifice is that we get a fresh start, we die to ourselves. Our past is dead, our mistakes are forgiven and we can start fresh and new and its not in our own strength but in His strength, His wisdom, His words, His everything. The beauty of being made new in him is that its not all on us. Lets face it we screwed it up the first, so why would we think we’d be the solution to our redo.

When we feel our past or our old selves creeping back in, our answer should be to say ‘No in Jesus name, that is not who I am anymore’ then fix our eyes back on Jesus. He is the solution to everything. I don’t have all the answers and neither do you, but he does.

So stop struggling and surrender.

We don’t have to have all the answers

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Colossians 4:5-6

We are not meant to know everything or the answer to all of life’s questions, but we should know how to respond. Even Jesus didn’t always respond with words. Sometimes all people need is someone to listen, a shoulder to cry on or someone to cheer them on and encourage them.

We have the Holy Spirit with us at all times and he is the one with all the answers. But even his response is not always what to say but sometimes what to do or what not to do.

How to react to a situation usually makes a bigger impact then words. That’s why building a deep intimate relationship with God is so important. So that in the hardest and most influential situations we can hear him and follow his leading.

Next time your in a situation and you don’t know what to do, ask the Holy Spirit and trust that he knows how best to react.

When you’re at your lowest

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.

Jesus is All We Need

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.

Don’t lift yourself up

The second book of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is Prince Caspian. I am always asking God to reveal new things to me; especially when I read or watch something for the umpteenth time.

I never realized it before but Prince Caspian is symbolic what happens to us when Jesus lives in us. Caspian is the son of the king and the rightful heir to the throne but he goes about obtaining the throne by seeking to restore peace between all and by not trying to do it all on his own.

He looks to Aslan, who represents Jesus for help and the counsel of others who have served Aslan.

We are the same. We are heirs to the throne of heaven with Jesus, because of his sacrifice. But the only way we can take our place with him is to believe in him and serve him.

When we serve God and others he lifts us up, higher then we could ever be if we tried to lift ourselves up.

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

When You Don’t Know

You know those times when you just don’t know what to do, or where to draw your strength. That’s when we need God most. When we don’t know where to look.

He is the one that created us and he knows every little detail the good and the bad. But when we are at our worst; is when he is at his best. When we don’t know what to do but surrender to him. That’s when he can do his best for us. When we breakdown our walls of self sufficiency and the ‘I got this’ and let him lead. That’s when he can do his best for us. Because its not about what we can do on own own but what he can do through us.

Why don’t we just go straight to heaven the minute we accept Jesus into our hearts?

If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

Philippians 1:22-26

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!

not afraid

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.

Is it well with your soul?

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.

Find freedom

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.

Why We Praise God

O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

Isaiah 25:1

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.

Amazing Grace

To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:6

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.

Unstoppable love

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.

life giving

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.

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