God's grace

Your circumstances cannot change the character of God. 

God’s grace is still in full effect; and He is still for you, even when you don’t feel it. 

For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

http://bible.com/1/2co.1.12.kjv

Don't give in

God is watching over you, so don’t listen or give in to your fears. This is a choice. Trust God!!!! 

God’s promise to believers is that, no matter what happens to us, He is working for our good — if we love Him and follow Him.

In that case, we can stop listening to our fears. There is no difficulty, dilemma, defeat, or disaster in the life of a believer that God can’t ultimately get some good out of. There is no need to fear the future. 
Your fears reveal where you do not trust God.

Trust Him, then sit back, watch to see how He comes through for you.

Persecuted but not broken

Do you sometimes feel lonely? Tempted to be discouraged, misunderstood and criticized unjustly? 

Of course! None of us are exempt from suffering, loneliness, discouragement, or unjust criticism, because God is developing within us the character of Christ, and, in order to do this, he must take us through all of the circumstances in life through which he took Christ. 

Does this mean God causes tragedies? No. God is good, and he will not cause evil or do evil. But God can use dark and stressful times for good. He'll use them to teach us to trust him, to show us how to help others, and to draw us closer to other believers. 

So, what should you do when you’re going through difficult times? 

First, you refuse to be discouraged. Then, you remember God is with you. Finally, you rely on God’s protection and guidance. 

We all go through difficult times. The difference for those who believe in Jesus is not the absence of the shadow but the presence of the Light.

Preparation

The Spirit of God prepares His people for the work with much care and love. He deposits His attributes of love, goodness, and mercy into us and conditions us to produce fruit to carry on in His power and might, preaching the Good News, setting the captives free, healing the sick and the brokenhearted. 

Romans 8:29 says; “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (NLT).

Our Prayer: Lord, Your Word is true and does not return to You void. We will wait for You and trust in You as You prepare us for greater works. For You who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Waymaker

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2, KJV)

When life is not going well, there is a tendency to look downward. 

In those moments, remember that God is good all of the time and HE has a plan and a way out! We must look to HIS Word to see what He has to say about the situation.

Does it happen overnight? Nope. But every time the enemy reminds you of the trouble, remind him of your Helper and how our God is faithful!

Amen!!!!

Author and Finisher

“Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]…” Hebrews 12:2 (Amplified)

Don’t get bent out of shape wondering how God is going to finish something you had nothing to do with its beginnings in the first place. Rest in the confidence that if He authored it, He will finish it. 

Healing wasn’t on your mind until God promised He will heal you. Wealth wasn’t on your mind until God promised He will bless you.

Trust God and wait on Him. Wait in great anticipation, not anxiety. Wait in great expectation, not worry or fear. If God authored it, He will finish it!

May your faith be strengthened, in Jesus name, Amen.

Un-Deserving

Who is on your gift list this Christmas? Usually, we give gifts to family and friends. We want to buy gifts for people we love and people we care about. We tend to give gifts to those who treat us well, people who are kind and considerate to us. Some of us will even buy gifts for our pets. 

However, we generally don’t buy gifts for our enemies, do we? 

We don’t give a gift to the person who has slandered us in the past year, or to the irate neighbor who never has a kind word to say, or to someone who has tried to run us out of business, nor do we give a gift to that mean boss..

But think about this: when God sent Jesus Christ, His Son, and gave us this ultimate gift, He gave it to us while we were still His enemies. The Bible tells us, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

We did nothing whatsoever to merit or deserve this gift. In fact, what we really deserve is judgment, because we all have sinned against God. BUT God gave us his gift anyway! 

Challenge: Will you give an “undeserving"  person a gift this season??? 

Abundance

Recognize the schemes of confusion, doubt, fear, disloyalty, pain, disappointment, rejection, loss of self, despair, low self-esteem, lack of, identity crisis, loneliness, competition, depression etc...

Jesus came to give us a good life and that we might have an abundance of it...that is a fact and a promise. Do not let the enemy rob you of that. 

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

http://bible.com/1/jhn.10.10.kjv

Christmas

Christmas can be a very hard and disappointing time for a lot of people, for many reasons. 

Unfortunately, a lot of people turn to alcohol and drugs, and suicide attempts go up at this time of year. 

Sometimes there is a deep sadness at Christmas because of issues and family problems. For some, their parents have divorced; or their wives or husbands are no longer at home; and some have lost loved ones. There is a real deep pain and their struggle is just as real. 

Remember, that while some are having fun at Christmas, others are going through it. 

Let's not turn away from them, let's show them the love of Christ and how He also has given them the same freedom you have. 

Promise

God will meet you in your everyday, nothing special certain places. While you're simply going through your common routines God wants to meet you. God wants to remind you of your purpose and to the specific promises He made to you.

God will turn your certain places into places of His inheritance, promise; places of His presence.  God will cause your certain places to be marked and named when He's done with you.

Surely the Lord is in this place....

Christmas

On one occasion, when Jesus was twelve years old, He went missing. Mary and Joseph (his parents) lost sight of Him, and it took three days of searching to find Him again. They had been in Jerusalem for the Passover, and as they were returning home, He was nowhere to be found. But here is the interesting thing: they traveled an entire day before they missed Him. It isn’t that they lost their love for Him or their faith. They just lost Him. 

Can this happen to us? The answer is yes. It is possible to go through an hour, a day, or even a week without a passing thought of Jesus. (That is, until a crisis hits.) 

This is the easiest thing to do at Christmas, .....think about it. We are so busy celebrating the birth of Christ that we can forget about Christ.

One way we lose Jesus is when nonessentials displace essentials. When we are busy, often our spiritual lives are the first things to go. We don’t have time to read God’s Word. We don’t have time to pray, even for a moment. We can’t afford to give anything to God because we have so many things to buy. We allow nonessentials to take the place of essentials. 

Whenever I lose something, I retrace my steps. Where did I have it last? I go back to that place, and often I will find it there. 

If you’ve found that you’ve lost Jesus in the busyness of life, then you need to go back to where you were before. And the good news is that even if we lose sight of Jesus, He never loses sight of us. 

#Christmas

Strength

“The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!” Habakkuk 3:19 (AMP)

When you lack courage and confidence, God is your bravery. 

When you feel weak and pitiful, God is your strength. 

When you feel like you are standing by yourself against the attacks of the enemy, God is your invincible army. 

Before the enemy can disqualify you, God has already qualified you. You are who God says you are, you have what God says you have, and you can do everything God said you can do.

Receive it!!!!

Be alert

The Fall is a great example of how the enemy’s lies lead to destruction. 

First, it starts with deception .... And that leads to rebellion ...and before we know it, our eyes are not fixed on Christ. 

We see in Genesis 3, that the serpent was able to shift Eve’s focus off God and his provision. In turn, the lust of the eyes took over and discontentment arose. 

The enemy maneuvered his way into her mind and deceived her. 

It is in the same way (if we give room to it), the enemy deceives us into following our passions or the lust of the flesh. He manipulates us into thinking that we are missing something that is pleasurable. 

However, outside the covenant of God, those things lead to destruction with grave consequences. It is a lie that sex outside of marriage will satisfy you mentally, physically, emotionally and it most certainly will not satisfy you spiritually. If the yearning for love is the basis for your sexual sin; recognize that no love will fill that void except for the love of God.

Prayer

“…The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”

James 5:16 (AMP)

God hears us when we pray from our hearts. One way to strengthen our prayer life is to pray His Word. 

The Word in your heart

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name”. (John 1:12 NKJV)

There have been many times in your life that, you might have wondered why certain things happen to you; the things you’ve had to face or battle in life.

It is during those times, you will come to realize, that the only thing that will hold you up in such times is your “heart knowledge”. 

This is the word that you have hidden in your heart and meditated upon.  

Unique

Sometimes we find ourselves comparing ourselves to and striving to be like others for many different reasons. 

However, the truth is that God created each one of us differently and uniquely and we should accept ourselves as such. 

God’s glory and purpose is found in each one of our testimonies no matter what we look like or where we come from. And it’s all beautiful! 

Receive this reminder today that you are just fine the way He created you. 

He is within you, and you will not fall.

 

Forgiveness, not payback

It’s hard to forgive, yes....but know this, refusing to forgive those who have hurt you will only make you emotionally (and maybe physically) sick. 

Refusal to forgive keeps you trapped in an anger prison; it leads to a false sense of moral superiority; it poisons and embitters your spirit; AND it motivates Christ to withhold the forgiveness you need (Matthew 6:15). 

Instead, fill your temple with joyful praise and extend the same forgiving spirit He shows you. And know this--no matter how hard that may seem, the Lord will always give you the strength to do what is right.

To forgive is always much more rewarding than payback 

Living with purpose

Live out your life with purpose

Be intentional as to how you will live daily

Abstain from things that will potentially defile you

Learn from Daniel :) 

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

http://bible.com/1/dan.1.8.kjv

Confess

When we pray, most of us are able to take our problems to Christ, but what about our sins? 

If you are in Christ, believe that your sin is gone. (Matt. 27:46 NIV), he entered the wilderness on your behalf. He carried your sin away. Jesus did his part. Now do yours. 

Give God your guilt. Tell Him what you did. Place that guilt on the back of your Sin Bearer. Give it to Jesus with this request: “Will you take this away?” Do this as often as needed. One time, two times, ten times a day? Hold nothing back. No sin is too ancient or recent, too evil or insignificant. Be abundant and concrete in your confession. Go into as much detail as you can, as healing happens when the wound is exposed to the atmosphere of grace. 

Confession, you see, is not a punishment for sin; it is an isolation of sin so it can be exposed and extracted.

Invitation

An open invitation....

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

http://bible.com/1/rev.3.20.kjv