Even in the trials of life God has blessings for us. Jesus said:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
To find peace in the trials of life we have to keep fixed on Jesus not our circumstances.
God always wants to bless us and provide all we need and more but if we get lost in our suffering we block him out.
It’s only when we fix our eyes on Jesus despite our suffering that’s when he can be the peace beyond understanding for us and help us find joy.
God was in the gentle whisper. He speaks to us in many ways and one way is through others. Whenever I read this verse it reminds me of the scene in The Nativity Story when one of the ladies in the village where Mary lives tells the village kids this story.
She’s teaching them the different ways God speaks us.
God speaks to us through our surroundings, through nature, through visions and dreams, through others and he speaks directly to us. (more about how God speaks to us)
Often people think that God doesn’t speak to them because they didn’t hear a loud, booming audible voice. But don’t you think we would all be a little freaked out if that was the only way he spoke to us.
God desires a deep intimate relationship with each one of us and to do that he whispers to us, but we have to listen.
Our lives must become a fitting response to His love. ~Heidi Baker
You can never have enough of God. We need to make him part of everything, everyday. He created the universe he can plan our day or show us the best way to handle life’s curveballs, he can fill us with all that we need and overflow us so that when the hard times in life come all that pours out is Him.
The beauty of Jesus sacrifice is that we get a fresh start, we die to ourselves. Our past is dead, our mistakes are forgiven and we can start fresh and new and its not in our own strength but in His strength, His wisdom, His words, His everything. The beauty of being made new in him is that its not all on us. Lets face it we screwed it up the first, so why would we think we’d be the solution to our redo.
When we feel our past or our old selves creeping back in, our answer should be to say ‘No in Jesus name, that is not who I am anymore’ then fix our eyes back on Jesus. He is the solution to everything. I don’t have all the answers and neither do you, but he does.
We are not meant to know everything or the answer to all of life’s questions, but we should know how to respond. Even Jesus didn’t always respond with words. Sometimes all people need is someone to listen, a shoulder to cry on or someone to cheer them on and encourage them.
We have the Holy Spirit with us at all times and he is the one with all the answers. But even his response is not always what to say but sometimes what to do or what not to do.
How to react to a situation usually makes a bigger impact then words. That’s why building a deep intimate relationship with God is so important. So that in the hardest and most influential situations we can hear him and follow his leading.
Next time your in a situation and you don’t know what to do, ask the Holy Spirit and trust that he knows how best to react.
Even when we feel we at our worst, God is always all we need.
We tend to want the be alone when at our darkest moment but that’s when He shines most (in the darkest places). That’s when we need Him most and that’s when we should turn to Him.
Only He can truly deliver us from our worst moment because only He can make us new.
We are never beyond Jesus reach, if we let Him in.
The best part about Jesus is that he is what we are not. So when we say we don’t it feel like, that’s ok, we don’t have to, because he is what we are not. He is our strength, our peace, our joy he is all need.
We have to stop trying to be what we think God wants us to be and let him be in us what he is.
When we surrender our lives over to him we need to fill that up with something but we often make the mistake of filling up on the things that got us to where we were in the first place before Jesus.
We need to fill up on Jesus, to fix our eyes on what draws us closer to him, not further from him. We all have this problem of trying to imitate God instead of letting him be God in us.
We need to get out of the way.
If his intention was to have us fix ourselves, then why did he sacrifice his life for us.
Don’t say well that’s just the way I am. Because when you gave your life over to God you gave up that person, to be the person he created you to be.
That person is loving and peaceful and fearless and joyful.
So stop saying less of me and more of him and say none of me and all of him.
The second book of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is Prince Caspian. I am always asking God to reveal new things to me; especially when I read or watch something for the umpteenth time.
I never realized it before but Prince Caspian is symbolic what happens to us when Jesus lives in us. Caspian is the son of the king and the rightful heir to the throne but he goes about obtaining the throne by seeking to restore peace between all and by not trying to do it all on his own.
He looks to Aslan, who represents Jesus for help and the counsel of others who have served Aslan.
We are the same. We are heirs to the throne of heaven with Jesus, because of his sacrifice. But the only way we can take our place with him is to believe in him and serve him.
When we serve God and others he lifts us up, higher then we could ever be if we tried to lift ourselves up.
You know those times when you just don’t know what to do, or where to draw your strength. That’s when we need God most. When we don’t know where to look.
He is the one that created us and he knows every little detail the good and the bad. But when we are at our worst; is when he is at his best. When we don’t know what to do but surrender to him. That’s when he can do his best for us. When we breakdown our walls of self sufficiency and the ‘I got this’ and let him lead. That’s when he can do his best for us. Because its not about what we can do on own own but what he can do through us.
Why don’t we just go straight to heaven the minute we accept Jesus into our hearts?
For this very reason, that we might be there to encourage and uplift each other, but also so that we may take more people to heaven with us.
What better way to reach people then through people. God has a grand intricate design to every bit of creation and we are a major part of that. He wanted to make us part of the process, not just instantaneous zap into heaven.
Think about it, would’t that be scary if every time someone accepted Jesus sacrifice they disappeared. Who would want to follow that person? Not knowing where they went, why, if they were ok.
No, God makes us his witnesses to tell and show others, how he changes our lives, how he heals and restores how he provides and loves us beyond imagination.
We are meant to share him with others, so go out and tell someone!
I’m not afraid of the world, I’m not afraid to travel or to move, I’m not afraid to follow God.
Every time I follow God’s leading, his direction, his plan. He has been all I needed, he has provided more then I needed.
When I follow him he give me all I need. The strength to follow his direction, the confidence to walk through the storm and the love to do all that he has asked.
When God calls us to do something, to be something, he gives us all that we need and more to not just accomplish what he has for us, he give us boldness and confidence to thrive in what he’s called us to.
What has he called you to? Fear not for he will be all you need and more.
It is well with my soul, is all any of us want. We want to have peace in us to have freedom from guilt and shame, to stop fighting against everything and everyone and to truly find peace.
Jesus is that peace, because he is peace.
He came to give us his peace in our very souls.
That we would no longer walk in fear or worry, but in confidence and strength, that we would draw that from him. Because no matter how alone we feel when we have him in our lives we are never really alone, he is with us always.
In ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ movie, when Aslan lays down his life in place of Edmond, I can hardly watch and it always makes me cry. Because Aslan represents Jesus and Edmond represents humanity. It reminds me of what Jesus did to give us relationship with him.
Jesus laid down His life willingly for us, all of us and He knew it wouldn’t be easy or quick and that some would even rejoice in His unjust suffering but he forgave them even as He was dying, He forgave all of us.
Jesus paid the price for everything we have even done wrong so that He could have a relationship with us, so we could be forgiven and find freedom from guilt and shame.
Thank Jesus today for his sacrifice and find the freedom he paid for.
God loved us from the very beginning of creation, that’s why he created us, to love us.
We praise him because we trust him, we know who he is and that there is no one else like him, he is love and deserves all the glory.
That’s why we praise him, because of who he is, not who we are. Giving glory to God has nothing to do with us or whether we feel worthy to praise him, its about giving honor where honor is due.
He is God and he loves us, so if we love him, we should praise him for who he is, our everything.
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.
A movie recently came out about Bart Millard of Mercy Me’s life called I Can Only Imagine. Bart’s dad was horrible to him as he was growing up and he left as soon as he graduated high school, to pursue his career in Christian music but just before his band made it big, he went home to patch things up with his dad and God answered both their prayers. Bart returned home which was his fathers prayer and his father had accepted Jesus and he finally had the dad he always wanted.
God answers our prayers but sometimes the timeline doesn’t always happen when we think it should.
My mom raised me as a christian but I decided to abandon God for 6 years in my early twenties and live life the way I wanted.
This broke my moms heart. She prayed years for me to return to my faith in God. She watched for years as I made stupid, selfish choices all in the name of finding what I thought would make me happy.
But what I found instead was disappointment and a constant longing to feel loved, accepted, valued and wanted.
By worldly standards I had what appeared to be a good life on the outside, a good job with consistent promotions and a long term relationship. But in reality I had a job that pulled me away from friends and family and an emotionally abuse dependent relationship.
I was miserable trying to find happiness on my own.
Eventually I hit rock bottom and decided to give my life back to God.
Keep praying for your family and friends, continue to love and support them and always keep the door open for them. You never know when they will make the decision to change their life.
Who is Jesus to you really? Is a man who walked the earth years ago, who had some followers and said some great things? Is he someone you claim to worship, but really know nothing about? What do you know about him? Do you know his character, his actions, his sense of humor? Who is he to you?
Jesus to me is the son of God, he came to earth as a baby to serve the people he loved, to sacrifice everything for the people he created because he loved them. He gave up everything for us and so I have no problem giving everything for him.
Because Jesus is the one I run to when I have a problem or bad day, bad mood or hard circumstance, but he’s also the first one I thank for all the great things in life. I seek him each morning and through out the day because days without him are tough and dull. He is my friend, my confidant and he uplifts my spirit. Jesus is my everything.
It’s so easy to get caught up in who we were in our past, last week or even an hour ago. But you can’t change the past, only learn from it.
Our focus should be on the present and the future; looking towards who Jesus made us to be and what he has called us to.
Dwelling on the past only makes you look backwards; it’s really hard to go forwards when you are always looking backwards.
Surrender your past year, day, hour and even the last minute to Jesus and move forward. Allow his grace and sacrifice to cleanse you of your past and focus on who he is turning you into.
He’s not concerned with what you’ve done, he already paid the price for it. His focus is on who he has made you to be and what he has planned for you.
Jesus rescues us. He rescued me and he can rescue you.
So many people think Christians are perfect, but we wouldn’t be Christians if we were perfect. The very reason we need Jesus is because we are not perfect.
We need Jesus, we need his grace, his sacrifice, his love, his forgiveness.
We have all messed up in our lives, and that’s why we need him.
We don’t need to try to clean up before we come to Jesus, or fix our mistakes first. We need to come to him at our worst, so that he can makes us our best.
He loves to see us at our worst because that’s when we have broken down our barriers and he can come in and make us new. He already knows all the junk and he wants to makes clean and new, to take away the harm of our past mistakes and give us love and joy and confidence because we know that no matter what he will always love us.
I will never claim to perfect because I know that I have a past, a past full of mistakes that I regret, but it’s because of his love and forgiveness that my life has changed and that’s what I focus on, on him and his love and forgiveness.
That’s what he has done for me and he can do that for you too.
When your having a rough day, ask yourself did I put God first , did I talk to him this morning, did I start my day out right? Is he part of what I’m doing right now.
And if he isn’t. STOP. put him first above everything else and let him be your peace, your guidance, all you need.
Restart your day the right way, by putting God first.
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.
Dancing to worship God is a freeing experience, its using your all your being to praise God with your words, your mind, your heart and your body. Dancing to praise God isn’t about skill or show, it’s about rejoicing over what God has done and is doing in your life.
I prefer to dance in worship in private at home or if in a corporate setting I will go to the back corner. For me dancing in worship is freeing but also something very private between me and Jesus. Please don’t misconstrue that you have to dance to fully worship God. I have had moments of worship with Jesus where I’ve been sitting in a corner saying nothing, doing nothing just enjoying his presence, those moments are just a deep and intimate.
When I was in Uganda everyone danced and sang for worship and honestly when I got back to home it was hard not to dance.
The point of worship is to glorify God, not ourselves. So even if we are preforming skilled dance for others in worship to God it is about our heart.
Worship is about our hearts.
Its about surrender, humility and glorifying God. However you worship or someone else worships humble yourself and glorify God.
I 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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s easy to give up, to think you can’t go on or that God can’t use you, doesn’t want you or doesn’t need you. But nothing could be further from the truth.
God’s never done with you.
No matter where you are, what your doing or how far you think you’ve fallen. God’s never done with you.
He is always there for you, he always wants you and he always has more for you.
You can’t exhaust God, his love doesn’t run out and his grace covers all.
So no matter what, no matter how you feel, you can always turn to him and he will lift you up.
If someone asked you, who you are? What would you say? Would it be your job title? Who you are in relationship to others? Or would it be something else? What if all of it was striped away; your job, your friends, your family, everything. Who would you be? What would define you? Would it be characteristics or attributes? Or would you not know?
If it was just you on an island by yourself alone with nothing to go back to, no home, no friends, no family, just you. What would you cling to? What would make you, you?
For me it’s God. I am his, no matter what. He’s where my identity comes from. I’m his kid and that where I draw strength, confidence, comfort and identity from. Because like Job even if everything was stripped away from me. I’m still his, and no one and nothing can take that from me.
As believers in Jesus that’s what we get, an undeniable sense of identity and assurance of who we are, God’s children.
If we read Ephesians chapters 1 and 2; we can see who we are because of our identity in Jesus.
We are chosen, blessed, belonging, forgiven, loved, adopted, wanted, favored, showered with grace, a gift to God, delighted in, saved, lifted up, given new life, a member of God’s family, a citizen of God’s country.
And if you are not yet a believer you can be. You can have that same assurance in your identity by just believing in Jesus love and sacrifice and allowing him into your heart.
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.
Sometimes we ask ourselves should we do this or should we do that? Is this ok? Our first reaction should be if we are questioning something, the very fact that we are questioning it should be a sign.
By Jesus living in and through us, God is love and to love him and others we must let him shine through us, we should reflect him in our words and actions.
But it’s not about striving and trying to do and be like him, but it’s through relationship with Jesus that we learn who he is and by surrendering ourselves over to him so that he can live through us.
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.
In Prince Caspian, from The Chronicles of Narnia, Price Caspian gives a perfect example of how we as believers in Jesus should feel when we feel outnumbered and surrounded. Confident and unafraid.
Because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when we focus on what is around us or even just in front of us. But when we remember God is always with us it changes our perspective.
We become like Lucy, a child facing an army with just a dagger, oh and of course the God of the universe to fight for us. We can have complete confidence because He loves us, he fights for us and if we trust Him he will take care of everything. Nothing should phase us, because He is with US!
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.
But how do you get it, when there is always something, to worry about.
Simple. God’s peace surpasses our worldly concerns. It may sound crazy, but he created us and he created this world, so his peace can supersede our worries and concerns.
So how do we get his peace?
We trust him and give our worries and concerns over to him.
His peace, is like shifting the responsibility over to him. You know that feeling when you feel overwhelmed with a task, like it will never end and you have no idea how to accomplish it. Then your boss comes to you and says you were never meant to worry or deal with that task in the first place.
That’s how God’ peace feels, that immediate relief, that lift of tension and stress.
God never meant for us to bear our own burdens, he came so that he could relieve that stress and give us his peace.
Stop living as if you have to do it all on your own, because you we’re never meant to, we are meant to life live in peace, because we are menat to live life with Jesus 24/7.
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 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.
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?
Many people will tell us, you have to do this or do that to live for God.
We are not meant to blindly follow man. We are meant to know God and follow Him. We are called to know the truth for ourselves to read the scriptures and come to the same understanding or not.
We are meant to direct others to God, so that they develop their own relationship with him. Not be there proxy.
In our house church, each week we ask. ‘What has God been teaching you this week?’ Various people share, not always the same ones, and what each of us shares is almost always connected. Sometimes we help someone going through something and sometimes lots of us are going through the same thing without even realizing it. But the focus of the group is to seek God and to help each others do the same.
We all have the same goal. It isn’t about a certain teacher or teaching but about deepening our relationship with God and helping each other do the same.
In everything we do it should be about seeking God. Letting Him direct our words, our actions and development of a deeper relationship with Him.
It’s good to go to a counsel of believers, but we need to make sure you are seeking God for ourselves and not relying on the faith of others.
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!
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.
