Prayer is simply a conversation with God. Talking with him, listening to him, enjoying his presence. But our approach to the conversation determines the outcome.
If we come to him with demand after demand without giving him even a moment to respond. How do you think that would go? How would you react, if that was how someone approached you?
Go to God with thankfulness for him, humility and appreciation of who he is. Speak to him as you would to the person you respect and love the most and listen for his answers.
Following the leading of the Holy Spirit can sounds scary and intimidating. But all it really is, is simple small choices that lead to the big ones. Even small choices can have a big impact.
For years I asked the Holy Spirit which way to drive to work as I had a few routes that would get me there. Every time I followed His leading I arrived on time. But when I didn’t I arrived late. Little decisions can make a big difference that we may not see in the moment.
A larger scale example is from a friend of mine that was driving to an event across the state, it was something he attended yearly and never usually needed a restroom break in the two hour drive. But this one time he needed it; completely out of the norm for him. Later he found out that had he not stopped he would have mostly likely been on the highway at the spot where a massive car pileup happened.
The Holy Spirit gives us little prompting, even something as simple as bathroom break. We may never know the impact, but we need to trust that he has a reason and a purpose for everything, even the small stuff.
What has the Holy Spirit been leading you to do? Take that small step of faith and follow His leading.
The song I can only imagine by Mercy Me speaks to me every time I hear it.
One of the most pivotal times was when my husband and I went to a Astros game in Houston. We were living in Louisiana at the time and decided to go to Houston for our anniversary. We found tickets the morning of the game and had no idea that it was the Faith and Family day for the Astros. (If you’ve never been to one you should go most MLB teams have one)
After the game one of the players and his wife shared there testimonies. Following that was a Mercy Me concert. I have always loved them but had never heard them in concert. It was amazing, I think I cried through the whole time just praying and worshiping God as He broke my heart, reminding me that He had a calling on my life to be a writer and that I had been ignoring it at that time.
At the end of the concert the lead singer Bart Millard shared how Mercy Me was his dream and how God had pushed him to it and used the song I Can Only Imagine to do it. A song that had been strung throughout my life and has always driven me to the feet of Jesus.
This experience with God was the catalyst that pushed me to write to start this devotional blog in 2018. It was the push that I needed to follow the dream that God had placed in my heart.
What dream has God placed in your heart? Seek God, ask him what he’s called you to and his plan to accomplish it.
Kindness and seeing people for who they can be. Not for who we judge them to be in a moment. Can change both peoples perspectives for the better.
In the movie the Blind Side the people around Michael see him for who he could be. We all have gifts and talents and many times it just takes that one person to believe in them to help us succeed.
That’s how God looks at us. He sees our full potential to do great things, he created each of us and he knows what we can do and its even more then we can image.
Its his kindness that he sent Jesus and its his kindness that he waits for us to be ready to receive all that he has for us.
Seeing people the way that God sees them changes our perspective of ourselves and of others. Next time you doubt God’s plan for you ask him how he sees you. Trust me you won’t be disappointed.
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.
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.-Colossians 3:1-4
We are meant to think like Jesus, act like Jesus and be Jesus. But we are not meant to play act, we are supposed to let him shine instead of us.
Think of Jesus as your boss in a way, but imagine he is the best boss ever, who only ever wants the very best for you and others. You wouldn’t make decisions without your bosses approval so why would we make decisions without first going to Jesus.
He knows everything and therefore knows the best way, the most efficient way and the funniest way to do things. So why wouldn’t we look to him for guidance.
We are meant to set our mind in heaven where Jesus is and bring heaven to earth to those around us.
Jesus is with us all the time. He is our constant companion. We can talk to him anytime anywhere, in a traffic jam, at work, with our family, anytime he’s like your best friend that you can text anytime but you don’t need a phone to communicate with him.
We have the creator of the universe with us at all times, why wouldn’t we use that to our advantage?
We are meant to see the world through his eyes not him through the worlds eyes.
Love is powerful, it drives us. We seek it out wherever we can, but even when we find it through others it’s not perfect.
I love my husband more then anyone else and he loves me. But our love for each other pales in comparison to the love of God.
Gods love is what drives me, it’s what fills me up, his love is the one thing in life I cannot live without and that I know I can count on one hundred percent. God loved us before we were even born and he sacrificed everything to share his love with us.
His love is unconditional, we can’t earn it, and he will never take it from us.
We are the ones who choose to abandon his love, because we think we don’t need it or we don’t understand it.
His love is untarnished, overflowing and unending. Letting God love you where you are at will be the greatest decision of your life.
When we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit we can accomplish things we never would think ourselves capable of. Holy Spirit gives us the confidence, the words and all we need to do what he calls us to.
Esther is a great example of this. She did what God asked of her and saved an entire people through a few dinners.
God calls us to do and be more then we could of ever think possible. In my life God has provided over and over again in ways I never expected. In the few years my husband I have faced the most financial instability we have ever faced since we got married ten years ago. But God has provided over and over again from people and places we never expected. Although we are still facing some challenges. We know that God will continue to provide because he always does.
We all need to trust him to provide what we need to accomplish what he ask of us.
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.
Trusting God can seem hard if you have no faith in him, but if you know him and his character. Then you know he more then earns our trust.
When we ask God for things, it’s easy to become discouraged if we don’t get the answer we wanted or in the time we think we should get it. But when he asks us to wait for something or doesn’t answer us the way we wanted he gives us peace beyond our understanding.
Our uneasiness, fear or anxiety about his answer comes from us not trusting him. Not his answer. He knows what’s best for us and when.
Many times when he says “no” or “not yet” it is because he has something better for us, beyond what we could image or what we want in the time we want it, would harm us more then help us.
I’ve used this example many times, but my husband and I both went through a time period where we were lonely and looking for our future spouse and both of us chose people who were not good for us and took advantage of us. They were not the right people for us but we tried to get what we wanted, when we wanted it instead of waiting for God to bring us into each others lives.
Because of our selfish decisions we both had to learn how to be in a healthy relationship and heal from the wounds of those past relationships. In the same respect it took time for those wounds to heal and we were both glad that we had not met sooner as God was working on both of us to be ready to have a healthy relationship, so that we would not bring past hurts into our relationship.
Trust God’s timing and his answer. Know that he has good plans for you.
God doesn’t ask us to go without having planned and provided for us in advance. Walking in faith isn’t about knowing what he has planned for us but trusting that he has already provided for what he asks of us even if we can’t see it.
God goes before us and lays the ground work. We each build on the work of each other and provide for each other. He uses each of us to support the other. Going forward to who and what he calls us to, makes us who he made us to be.
He’s called me to write so I write. He’s called me to preach so I take any opportunity given. He’s called me to encourage and uplift others and I pray I do that for with each of these devotionals. I hope I encourage you to see God working in your life. That you grow closer to him and learn to love and trust him more each day.
Trusting God isn’t about knowing where or what your going to but about who your going with. The God who created the universe. If he has called you to something or someone. Know that he is with you and he will give you the words, the means, the knowledge and the wisdom in what and where he has called you to.
The breakup song by Francesca Battistelli is a great anthem for those moments of fear that sneak up on us.
The reminder that we have the power to tell fear to leave.
We don’t have to let it over take us every moment of every day. We have the choice to let ourselves be ruled by fear or to choose our feeling and refuse to let fear control us.
Listen to the song. Sing along a tell fear to leave.
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. -2 Timothy 1:7
Planting seeds takes a lot of faith. You never know what you’ll get, when they’ll grow or how much the plant will produce, or if it will grow at all. But we still plant seeds.
In the movie Faith Like Potatoes, Angus a farmer finds faith in God and follows the leading of the Holy Spirit to plant potatoes. Planting potatoes takes faith because you cant see what crop you’ve yielded until you’re ready to harvest.
Planting seeds of faith can be like this. We don’t know what will stick and what will not grow but we if we want to see a harvest. We still have to plant.
Sow seeds everywhere in everyone, you never know what will produce a harvest.
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” –Matthew 13:3b-9
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 Jesus 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.
Jesus saw people as valuable. We all are the joy set before him that he endured the cross. He gave everything to bring us into relationship with Him, Father God and Holy Spirit.
We should be encouraging others to find Jesus so that He can show them their true potential through relationship with Him.
He changed our lives. Why wouldn’t we want Jesus to do the same for others.
Bringing others into the family should be our joy and be the crown that we lay at Jesus feet.
We can’t take money or possessions to heaven with us, but we can take people.
See people as the true value that they are. The value that Jesus placed on humanity is priceless. You are priceless. All of us are priceless in God’s sight. Treat people the way Jesus did; as valuable beyond measure.
God will never stop running after us. He will always be there for us when we need him or when we want him. God will always be there with us through everything, if we let him.
God’s will and his plan for us is always for our good. That doesn’t mean we won’t face hard things but that he will be there with us through it. He will be with us through the trials and he will use them to draw us closer to him.
As long as we keep our focus on him in the storm. Like Peter walking on water. Peter only sank when he turned his focus turned off of Jesus and he let the storm surrounding him influence his faith instead of his faith in Jesus influencing his surroundings. It’s when we fix our eyes back on Jesus that he is our strength when we are weak, our joy when we are sad and our peace when we have none.
Even when we feel at our weakest and most vulnerable we can look to God. Because he is our strength. Whether we are having the best day of our lives or the worst day ever. He is the same.
His grace for us never changes. We could be at our worst and he will still extend his hand to us and say “Come here child.” Because we can’t earn his grace, because he gives it freely.
It’s easy to get caught up in our troubles, self-pity, anxiety and worry. But only one thing can bring us the peace that surpasses understanding. Jesus!
It’s his sacrifice that brings us into a deep, intimate relationship with him, Father God and the Holy Spirit. And its only that relationship that will sustain us and uplifts us when we need it most.
When I have those moments of feeling like “I’m in the depths of despair” to quote Anne of Green Gables. Instead of indulging those feelings and letting them lead me. I turn to God and simple say “help.” He always does.
When we turn our attention back to Jesus he changes our perspective. Comforting us with his plan and showing us how he see things.
Trying to change people by nagging pestering and yelling never works. We may get them to do what we want in the moment but it doesn’t change their heart. It doesn’t bring about real change.
Prayer is how we fight. Prayer changes things. Prayer changes our perspective of others and prayer is what can change their hearts. See prayer is simply a conversation with God letting him show us how he sees things.
So often we think we can change someone. Or we’ll love them more if we just get them to be who we think they should be. But if we look to change ourselves instead, to love them no matter what, God’s love through us will change them.
Think back to when you gave your heart to Jesus. Did you do it because he was nagging you or because you came to know his love and forgiveness? When we give our heart to God we repent of our past mistakes and we choose to let God change us. We have to do the same with others. Allow God to bring about the change.
Gods love changed us and the expression of that love will change others.
This world often teaches us to escape our problems. Have a drink, try this medication, I just need to veg or blow off steam. But none of these solve the issue. They mask or distract.
But God can. When we surrender our problems over to him he takes care of them for us. Some solutions may be as simple as a perspective change other solutions may be something we never considered. God created us. He knows how to care and provide and love us. But he can’t fix what we won’t give him.
So surrender whatever your dealing with over to God and let him be the solution. Let his peace that surpasses understanding wash over you and let his love be enough because it always more than we need.
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.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. –Matthew 6:25-34
Have you ever thought I can’t worship God right now I need an answer to this thing I’m worried about. I have. I’ve let my worries and concerns deter me from spending time with God. Because I’m trying to fix it on my own.
But what I really need is to spend time with God. It’s in our worship that we fully focus on him. And when we do, he can provide the solution we have been trying to achieve on our own.
Worship is an act of surrender when we lay down all we are worried about and give it all to God. It’s in that surrender that he can provide. It’s when we trust him despite our concerns that he can move. How do we expect him to fix it if we won’t give it to him.
Listen to this song and lay it all down and let him provide the solution.
What we say about ourselves matters. Be it out loud or in our head. What we let others tell us about ourselves matters. Be it good or bad. Words influence us. But what matters most is what God says about us. And what he says is we are loved, forgiven and made into a new creation
He sees us as who he made us to be. Not our past or what others tell us about ourselves but who we really are. When we give our lives to Jesus our old self dies and he lives through us. We are not the person we used to be. God doesn’t see us and all our mistakes he sees Jesus and his sacrifice for us. When he makes us a new creation we are forgiven and made new.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! -2 Corinthians 5:17
No one is past redemption if even Darth Vader can repents in the end so can anyone else. Yes it’s just a story but many stories resonate in truth.
Repentance is about our deeds or our life. It’s about Jesus life and his sacrifice in our stead. We simply have to accept his forgiveness and invite him into our heart.
So it doesn’t matter if we are on our death bed or have finally decided to give our life to God. He is always there waiting for you to choose him.
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 it, 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.
Life and death reverberate throughout all creation. In creation the dead bring life to the living. Plants draw nutrients from the compost of the creation that has died and gone back into the earth.
If you look and listen God is always teaching us, echoing his message throughout all creation.
Death brings life.
Jesus died to bring us new life. His sacrifice paid for our mistakes and makes us a new creation before God. So that we might have freedom from guilt and shame. So we can have have a pure, loving, deep, intimate connection with him.
Jesus’s death brings life and so does our own. When we die to our selfishness and let him live through us it’s like a light being turned on in dark room, we can finally see and find freedom from the darkness that once surrounded us.
Find freedom in him and let his love and sacrifice lead you to the light of forgiveness.
Just because you don’t have what you asked God for right now, doesn’t mean he’s not going to bless you with it later.
His timing is perfect. He know what we need, when we need it.
My husband and I didn’t meet until later in our adult lives. We were both looking for our spouse for years but the right person never came along. When we did meet we realized there were many times in our lives when our lives could have intertwined but they didn’t. During the waiting time we each focused on healing us from past hurts and growing closer to Jesus. If we had met sooner we would of caused each other pain because neither of us was really ready to be in healthy marriage. But because we took the time to heal and come to know that complete dependence on God is what we need. We don’t look to each other to fulfill us. We know that Jesus must be the center of our marriage and only he can fulfill us.
Trusting his timing can be hard if we focus on what we don’t have. But if we focus on what he is doing in our life right now, what we are waiting for won’t take as long as we think it will and will be better then if we’d had it when we thought we should.
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.
In the movie I Can Only Imagine Bart Millard pushes away his high school girlfriend Shannon when she tries to help him. His knee jerk reaction is to push her away.
Our natural reaction when someone tries to help us when we’re hurting is to push back, because it hurts when someone pokes a wound. But we have to find the root cause of the pain if we want to heal and sometimes that means a painful conversation to find that root.
When the human body is severely burned you have to remove the dead tissue to get to the healthy tissue so that it can grow and heal, which is an extremely painful experience but the end result is healed healthy tissue.
The same is true with our emotional wounds we have to remove the things in our life that are dead in order to allow new growth.
That may mean removing ourselves from certain people or circumstances that continue to hurt us.
But it also means we have to let those that are trying to help us heal, to help. Trust the people that have been there for you in a healthy way and lean on their experience to guide you through the healing process. And yes sometimes the the severest wounds scar but they don’t hurt anymore. Those scars can then be a testament to how God healed us.
“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.
Ministry is so much more then the person with the microphone.
There are always others, working to make events, outreaches and ministries happen.
When was the last time you thanked the person who faithfully makes the coffee each Sunday or the person who cleans your church, how about the person who opens their home up for your small group. Ministry is a group activity, we can reach other on a one on one basis but to reach a multitude is hard without a team that supports each other.
Paul acknowledged that in this passage. He appreciated the work and support of Epaphroditus.
If you are a leader remember to thank those that make it possible for you to do what you do, if you serve encourage and lift up those who serve with you.
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.
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. I want to hear your stories too of how God changed your life.
Because we each have a story and everyone’s is important and can make a difference in the the life of others. Please share your story in the comments or post it on social media and share what God has done in your life.
It’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.
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. We are meant to be creatures of light, not of darkness.
Things can be hidden in the dark, or misunderstood, but in the light they shine their true nature. Our eyes can be deceived easily in the dark, to see things that are not really there, or misinterpret things to be something other then what they are.
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.
God is the one we can always count on. We don’t have to do or be anything to come to him.
We can be in our worst state and he is there for us. No matter how tired or exhausted we are, he is not looking for deeds to earn his love and attention, just our hearts surrendered to Him.
Don’t worry about accomplishments. Just go to Him, He’s happy just to spend time with you.
Think about it this way. Has someone pointing fingers at you, teasing you, being told you are wrong, or protesting ever convinced you that you are loved by God. Then why would we think that it would convey that to anyone else.
Did Jesus do any of those things? No.
When people met Jesus, they changed their ways by their own decision. The tax collector gave back the money he stole with interest and Jesus never asked him to. Jesus didn’t throw rocks at the woman who was going to be stoned for adultery, he defended her. He didn’t call them out on what they were doing. They knew what the were doing. He called up to who he made them to be.
Jesus causes people to change their ways just by being love. It’s the love of God that causes people to choose to change, not condemnation. Isn’t that what brought you to God? His love and forgiveness.
We are not meant to be judge and jury. We are meant to show God’s love.
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 his response we will never know or understand him. Its in the listening that we really learn his character, his love and even his sense of humor. Often we are taught do this or say that and God will be pleased. But what if we just asked him what he wants. It may be simpler then we realize. It may to to smile at someone or had them some water. Or it may even be a simple as him asking us to just stop for a moment and enjoy his presence.
The more I seek God and ask him to share his interpretation of his word with me the simpler it is. Love God, love others. But we can’t skip the first part. Loving God is spending time with him. Even if it’s as simple as sitting in his presence and neither of you saying anything. Listening is the key to intimacy with God. So ask him what he wants and trust that no matter how small it seems it’s what is best for you and that all he wants. For his kids to feel loved and cared for.
God knows us. He knows every single thing about us down to the number of hairs on our head.
And he loves us even 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.
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 of humanity to reveal him.
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, valuable.
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 what can change our whole mood.
But we have to turn to him in those moments when we get in a funk and don’t know what to do, where to turn or just don’t want to keep doing what we’re doing.
It’s that knowledge of us that he uses to comfort us, bring us joy and hope and remind us that we matter and that we are loved.
It’s easy to feel alone in our struggles, but we never are when we have Jesus. He’s always there with us being all that we need even in our lowest lows God is with us. All we need is to turn to him.
He teaches us so much in our struggles. He shows us what is really important and the value or lack of value in the things of this world.
Jesus said we will have struggles but he has overcome them. Since he is always with us, we can always overcome them, because he has overcome them.
When we fell like we’re stuck in a tough situation it’s easy to look to solutions we never would have before. We can be tempted with a quick fix. Like Caspian and Peter in “Prince Caspian” they listen to the counsel of those they shouldn’t and even consider working with the white witch because they don’t think Aslan will provide. But Edmund helps them see it’s not the solution they really want.
We need to seek God daily and remind ourselves that he is good and he provides. It may not always be in the way we think it should happen or in our preferred timing but if we put our faith in him he will provide. Just like Aslan did through Lucy because she never lost her faith.
So stop trying to do it yourself, seek God and let him provide.
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 us in a completely different direction. We may pass by things we 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, we 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.
We have a choice.
If we made one wrong choice or dozens God is always there waiting to show us his love, grace and compassion. He is always ready to help us turn around.
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. But we can 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.
In our current time of social media and constant self promotion it can be hard to be humble.
We can be so worried about how many likes, shares, hits, retweets we get that we can lose sight of who and what we represent. As believers in Jesus we are meant to shine him to others. And we can be discouraged when even our posts about him get little traffic.
But we must remember that what we write/post/share for him isn’t about us. It’s about him. And even if it reaches just one person, it might be what that one person needed more than we could ever know.
The best part about Jesus is that he is what we are not. So when we say we don’t feel like it, that’s ok, we don’t have to, because he is what we are not. He is our strength, our peace and our joy. We have to stop trying to be what we think God wants us to be and let him be in us what he is.
When we surrender our lives over to him we need to fill that up with something but we often make the mistake of filling up on the things that got us to where we were in the first place before Jesus.
We need to fill up on him, to fix our eyes on what draws us closer to him not further from him. We have this problem of trying to imitate God instead of letting him be God in us. We need to get out of the way.
If his intentions was to have us fix ourselves, then why did he sacrifice his life for us. Don’t say we’ll that just the way I am. Because when you gave your life over to God you gave up that person, you died to self. So God can live through you so that you can be the person he created you to be. That person is loving, peaceful, fearless and joyful.
So stop saying less of me and more of him and say none of me and all of him.
I love watching movies and having God teach me something through them. The Lion King has so many moments that are teachable. Simbas overall life lesson is what caught my attention this time.
He tried to run from his problems, only to find out later that he didn’t even do what caused him to run. Many of us do this especially when we are kids. We run and hide thinking the consequences will be worse then they actually are or that our parents couldn’t possible forgive us. But things always go so much better when we own up to our actions and deal with the consequences.
We often do this with God. We run and hide from Him. Thinking that He could never forgive us or that He doesn’t love us or want us, because we messed up.
But nothing could be further from the truth. He loves us no matter what, He knows that we will make mistakes and He has already forgiven us.
Once we realize this, we can find freedom and become who He made us to be and come in our inheritance like Simba because we are God’s kids and He has so much He wants to bless us with.
Learning and knowing God’s voice and realizing that he wants a deep and loving relationship with us is essential. We can’t have the deep intimate relationship with him if we don’t know his voice.
God speaks to us in so many ways. Often it sound like us in our head but what is being said is something we know we wouldn’t say. He speaks to us to in many other ways. But this is the way I find the most intimate and essential. Because he is always with us and always there for us if we just turn our attention to him and ask him for what we are seeking. Everything can be taken away from us but the presence of God can’t. He is with us always as long a we seek him and listen for his voice.
