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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 and followers 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, not ourselves. And we can be discouraged when even our posts about Him get little to no traffic.
But we must remember that what we write/post/share for Jesus, isn’t about us, it’s about Him. And He will use it, even if we reach just one person with what we share, it could be that one thing that they needed. We may never know the impact we have made.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
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.
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.
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.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
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.
Seek God first.
In all things, seek him.
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.
Follow a skeptical director in the first of three films to see if God is really working in our lives today.
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.
And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.
Dancing to worship God is a freeing experience, its using your all your being to praise God with your words, your mind, your heart and your body. Dancing to praise God isn’t about skill or show, it’s about rejoicing over what God has done and is doing in your life.
I prefer to dance in worship in private at home or if in a corporate setting I will go to the back corner. For me dancing in worship is freeing but also something very private between me and Jesus. Please don’t misconstrue that you have to dance to fully worship God. I have had moments of worship with Jesus where I’ve been sitting in a corner saying nothing, doing nothing just enjoying his presence, those moments are just a deep and intimate.
When I was in Uganda everyone danced and sang for worship and honestly when I got back to home it was hard not to dance.
The point of worship is to glorify God, not ourselves. So even if we are preforming skilled dance for others in worship to God it is about our heart.
Worship is about our hearts.
Its about surrender, humility and glorifying God. However you worship or someone else worships humble yourself and glorify God.
I want you to know, brothers,[e] that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard[f] and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word[g] without fear.–Philippians 1:12-14
Paul was in prison when he wrote the book of Philippians, but he didn’t let it affect his witness. Instead he used it to witness to the guards and the other prisoners. And his boldness encouraged the believers outside to spread the gospel further and more passionately. God uses our circumstances, no matter how bleak to reach people.
My husband and I recently went through some rough financially patches, but each time God used it to draw us closer together, closer to him, and to help us see what’s really important in life.
God has been working me towards the goal of writing this blog for a long time, but in the process I wrote and trashed half a book, wrote a second book and have two failed ministry launches to get me to the point of realizing what my ministry would be and how he wanted me to do it.
This blog and having a career as a writer has been a dream for a long time, but God had to take me through a process to make me who I am today, to prepare me to do this the right way. Along this long path I’ve picked up skills that we’re much needed to make this a success and (I’m still learning) but I wouldn’t of had the drive, the desire or the knowledge without going on the journey that he took me on.
Just because you may have failed at what you know God has called you to, doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to use that experience to teach you how to succeed in what he’s called you too.
So keep pursuing the dream God has placed in your heart and don’t be discouraged, we all fail, but it’s how we fail that matters.
Let God lead you on the path he has for you.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love is selfless, lust is selfish.
In our instant gratification society, everyone wants everything immediately, people are rarely willing to wait for anything.
But what compromises have we made for convenience. We eat lower quality food because its cheaper and faster. We spend extra on shipping to get things one day sooner. We get annoyed if an email or download isn’t instant.
What has this done to our relationships? What compromises have we made?
We make snap judgments and quick commitments without giving much thought to it because its easier. But at what cost?
Lust is about ourselves, it’s about instant gratification of hormonal desires, it’s about me and what I can get.
Love is selfless. Love puts others before themselves.
When was the last time you were solely 100% focused on making everything about the other person?
Love waits because it sees the other as valuable. Love sees the best in the other and seeks to encourage them to be who God made them to be. Love keeps you grounded during the hard times and makes the good times better.
Love never fails, lust does.
Lust fulfills our selfish desires. Love fulfills the desire of our love.
Trusting God’s way can seem scary, but he has never failed me.
He always wants what’s best for us and that’s him.
See he is love ad because he is love his thoughts are not self-seeking they are for what’s best for us.
He love us so much that he does not even insist on his ways. He gives us the choice to choose them or not.
I trust God because he loves me and his love has never failed.
The other day I wrote about who Jesus is to me.
He is is my everything and it’s because of him that I write. He put the burden in my heart to write, he called me to it and encourages me in it, he is who I want to bring light to and draw our focus to.
I don’t write this blog for myself for my glorify or to be heard by others, I write it to draw people closer to Jesus, to help them see that he loves them and that he wants to be with us every moment of every day.
So if you get anything out of these devotionals I hope that it is that you see Jesus, grow closer to him and know him better each day.
The Love Dare is a fantastic book that helps you to put your spouse first before yourself as all good marriages should. But I will be the first to admit that it is easy to put the other first when your feeling good, and things are going well. But it is so much harder when things are hard and your not at your best.
Marriage isn’t about just the good times, it about how you handle the hard times. It’s about sticking together and loving one another even when you don’t feel like it or even want to. Marriage is a commitment for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. That means you don’t bail when things get tough or you don’t care for each other at the moment, because the moment will pass and things will get better.
But that doesn’t happen by accident you have to have God at the center of your marriage. Because if your happiness and well being depends on another person you will never be fulfilled. Only God can do that. Only he can truly make you feel 100% fulfilled.
When you get your identity from God, you draw on him for strength, perseverance and perspective. To see things from the perspective of the other opens the barriers you may have put up as a defense, and when you trust God to guide you, you can drop those barriers to bring reconciliation.
Life today is so much about appearance; we only show what we want others to see, we crop out the reality of life to project what’s expected, we add effects and filters, but often feel no one really knows the true us. .
Deep down all seeking a relationship where we can be ourselves, raw, open, vulnerable and unfiltered.
God is that person, He knows us, the good and the bad, the raw, the ugly. He knows it all, every little moment, every thought, every emotion, He knows us inside and out and He love us still, He held back nothing to know us. He gave His whole life; just to show His love for us.
Because of this love we can be open, honest and vulnerable with Him, He can handle it, in fact He loves the moments when we just surrender to Him. That’s when He can reach us the most, when we have no barriers with Him, He can express His love for us the most.
Go to Him with your problems big or little, go to Him with your worst, most broken moments and let Him be all you need. Let Him put you back together and build you up stronger.
When we are in any leadership role at work, at home, volunteer or any other capacity we need to be mindful of how we lead. Jesus lead by example as a servant, he never asked his disciples to do what he was not already doing, he never saw anything or anyone as above him.
He knelt in the dirt for an adulteress, he dined with a tax collector and saw greatness in fisherman.
He saw each person as valuable and worth eveything and he treated them as priceless.
Jesus lead with humility, patience and kindness. Shouldn’t we do the same?
I’m different then I used to be. Growing up I was shy and insecure, but knowing God changed that.
Knowing who is and who he made me to be gives me confidence, boldness and fearlessness, because I know who he is.
No matter where I go, he is with me. I’m never alone because he is with me, comforting me, inspiring me, teaching me, guiding me, protecting me, he is always with me. So I am never alone, and he is where I draw my confidence from, because I know who he is.
He loves each and everyone of us and he wants to do the same for us all. To show us who he is and who he made each of us to be.
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. -Ecclesiastes 11:7
Our eyes are naturally drawn to find light. We are meant to find light. If you close your eyes and then open them, your eyes will immediately go to the brightest thing. We seek out light, we add lamps to our homes and extra lights. Any good craftsmen will tell you they need good lighting to make their best product. We live our lives in light. Light helps us see where we are walking, where we are headed and where we’ve been. Light in some aspect is needed to do almost all things in life.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Why is there so much focus on the dark. We are meant to be creatures of light, not of darkness.
Things can be hidden in the dark, or misunderstood, but in the light they shine their true nature. Our eyes can be deceived easily in the dark, to see things that are not really there, or misinterpret things to be something other then what they are.
Worship can change everything, our attitude, our demeanor, our perspective and our mood. Worshiping God shifts our focus from our problems to his possibilities, his strength, his power and his provision.
God changes everything and that why we worship him. Because he saves us, he changes us and turns all thing out for good.
So whatever your dealing with surrender it to God. Give it over to him surrender and let him be your solution.
The days when you’re weak and tired are the days we need Jesus more then ever.
When we are at our weakest He is our strength, our energy, our wisdom, our everything. He provides all we need because He is all we need.
So no matter how tired or exhausted you are, know that He is all you need.
Seek Him and let Him be your everything.
We aren’t meant to blend in.
We are supposed to be different, so that people can see our witness in our words, our actions and reactions. We are to lay down our lives for Jesus as he did for us.
Sounds impossible, but it isn’t.
I can’t tell you how many times I didn’t want to get out of bed and go to work, like I’m sure many of you have too. But I did it anyway.
But just because I started my day off rough doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.
I’ve found that using my drive to work as a time to fix my eyes on Jesus makes a big difference by the time I get to work. I usually have worship music or sermons from podcasts playing as I get ready in the morning and on my drive to work. I call it Driving with Jesus. I ask Jesus to teach me something and He always does. Sometimes He uses a song or a sermon, and sometimes He uses people walking on the street or the landscape of my drive.
But He always changes my perspective and attitude by the time I get to work, if I let Him give me a perspective change. See many of our problems and issues stem from just seeing the problem from our own earthly perspective. But when we allow Jesus to show us His perspective He changes our view of things.
When you surrender your life and your day to God he changes your perspective and transforms your mind to see like He sees and think like He thinks. So let Jesus drive and enjoy the passenger seat of life’s road.
Jesus makes me brave. The love and protection I know He has for me, makes me know that I can move mountains and nothing can stand against me because God is for me.
If He has called you to something or someone nothing can stand in your way God will protect and provide for you to do what He has called you to.
No matter what your facing or how impossible it seems or even if you feel surrounded, remember the God of heaven is backing you, He surrounds those that surround you, He is on your side.
David knew he could defeat Goliath because God had anointed him to be king and he wasn’t king yet, he was still just a shepherd boy. We can stand on the promises God has given us.
He calls each one of us to a mission, He has deemed for us, and nothing can stop us as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in the pursuit of that which He has called us too.
No matter how impossible a situation, if God has called you to it, He will make a way.
That’s why He make me brave.
That’s why I stand up for God, because he stands up for me.
The tiniest spark can start a whole blaze.
The Holy Spirit works the same way, he sparks a fire and a passion in us to share God’s love with people but we have to fan the flame, nurture it and help it grow. If we snuff it out then we have to keep restarting that spark.
God gave me the verse Jeremiah 20:9
A long time ago to remind me that even though I turned my back on him once that I won’t do it again. But I need to fan the flame each day, I need to fuel the fire he put in me.
By spending time with him, by fixing my eyes on Jesus and asking him to teach me something new each day.
What fire has God started in your heart? Are you snuffing it out or are you feeding the fire he put in you?
Sometimes all we need is to just sit in Gods presence and breathe. Just let all our troubles melt away and bath in God’s presence.
When you feel defeated, knocked down, like no one is in your corner. Jesus is always there for you. He always has your back. He will go to bat for you because He already did when lived a sinless life and died to pay for our mistakes.
He’s forever on our side.
Jesus is always there for us.
We can always talk to Him. He will always listening, because He loves us.
He loves us so much that He gave everything for us. He gave every second of everyday for us. He gave up His life for US!
He’s forever on our side.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree and to work in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, I ask you too, my true companion, to help these women [to keep on cooperating], for they have shared my struggle in the [cause of the] gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. ~Philippians 4:2-3
Why do we have disagreements within the church body? I’m not talking about the big theological debates. More about the simple things like how the Christmas decorations get set up.
Why do we let these things bother us? Was it really our decision in the first place or are we giving our opinion. If it is our opinion, is that what we should be focused on?
Isn’t our role in the church to be the body of Jesus to help each other, not hinder.
Have we asked Jesus His opinion on the matter? Or are we just blazing forward without regard for God’s opinion.
You may think He doesn’t care about the little things, or that your perfectly capable of making that decision without Him; but should we be doing things without Him? Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
Jesus can make the simplest thing simpler or the most boring thing enjoyable.
Make every moment a moment to deepen your relationship with Him.
If doing something simple and boring is more fun with a friend; and He is the funnest friend ever. Then shouldn’t we want to do everything with Him.
Jesus is always seeking you, always pursuing you, always longing for you. He is always happy to see you, speak to you, share His love for you, with you.
You don’t have to clean up your act, or get to a better place to come to Him.
Go to Him anywhere, in any state; because He will go to you anywhere, in any state.
Just surrender to Him and let His love wash over you.
He is always there longing to be with you. He always wants to have relationship with you.
He always wants you.
All, all of us ever want is to be loved. To have a safe place where we know we can be open and vulnerable about our troubles, hurts and wounds.
Jesus is that safe place.
We can always go to Him about anything, anytime. He is always there for us, He always wants to talk to us, to love us and to heal us.
People often fear going to God in the hard times because they think they have to clean themselves up first.
But that’s not true.
Jesus wants us just a we are. What would be the point of going to Him for help if we thought we had to fix everything first.
He already knows everything, you won’t catch Him off guard.
Is chasing your dream worth the sacrifices you have to make to achieve your goal? What compromises will you make to get there? Who will you when you achieve your goal? Will your goal make you who you want to be? Or will chasing your goal change who you are?
When we chase our own goals, we often make compromises or sacrifice integrity to take shortcuts to achieve it. Many times when we achieve that goal we may lose who we wanted to be by achieving that very goal.
When we let go of our goals and trust God He surprises us with something beyond what we thought possible.
Every time I have tried to make my own goals or success it has not turned out as I have planned. The result of my goal has been less satisfactory then I had hoped for or I compromised who I was to achieve that goal. Nevertheless it has never left me feeling satisfied.
But when I follow God’s leading and look to the interest of others, I have never been disappointed.
It’s easy to get caught up in ourselves but so much more rewarding to serve and achieve the goals that God has laid on our hearts.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: (emphasis added)
If we have found encouragement, comfort, love, tenderness and compassion from Jesus.
Then we are supposed to bring joy to Him by being liked minded with Him, by sharing that same love with others, by following the Holy Spirit, by humbling ourselves and valuing others above ourselves.
If you haven’t found these things in Jesus, then I ask have you been seeking Him?
We cannot be these things to others if we do not first know them from Him. Its hard to give out what you haven’t received.
Seek God, learn His character, know His words and His actions. If we know Him we can tell others about Him, but if we don’t know Him how can we expect to show others.
I gave my life to Jesus because I tried doing life without him, I tried being happy without Him and it didn’t work. There was always something missing something I was striving for that I couldn’t grasp.
But life with Jesus is simpler, peaceful, and joy filled.
Don’t think I don’t have bad moments, I do, but those moments are the one where I don’t have Him in mind.
But it never fails that when I turn to Him, He shows me the sunshine through the rain. He shines bright and shows me where He is in that moment and He changes my perspective to find the joy in the sadness.
I heard a Pastor say once “unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
When we hold on to unforgiveness it grows into bitterness and resentment. We think we are hurting the other person because they hurt us, but most of the time the other person doesn’t even know they hurt us.
By holding onto it we just hurt ourselves more.
But by choosing to forgive we extend the same grace God gave us to them. it His grace not our ours and who are weto withhold His grace from someone.
Forgiveness is freeing.
Remember how you felt when you accepted Gods forgiveness, it’s the same when we forgive others.
So why would you choose to hold yourself back from that freedom?
None of us are beyond saving. We all have the opportunity to feel free and find new life in Jesus.
The beauty of His sacrifice is that when He died, we died.
“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
When we try to live without Jesus we are always striving to feel worthy, valued, loved and wanted.
But Jesus sacrifice already paid our debts and He gives us our worth and our value. He sees us as priceless, that’s why He gave His life for us. So that we could stop striving and start living in Him.
No matter you’ve done or how unworthy you feel, God will always see you as priceless and worthy because of His sacrifice, if we accept it.
