How aware are you of your identity? If someone asked you who you are, how would you identify yourself? Are you identified by things you have done? By things others have said about you?
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4,5, NLT).
God saw greatness when He was forming you and a future so bright. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us His thoughts toward us are of peace, not of evil, to give us an expected end.
So.....Anytime the enemy tries to convince you that God hates you and has it in for you, your confidence is, “No, God’s thoughts toward me are of peace and not evil”.
It is true!!! God is with you.
He is with you when you feel stagnant.
He is with you when you’ve just behaved out of character.
He is with you when you feel down and unlovable.
God is right there and He’s not going anywhere. He is committed even when you aren’t. He is faithful even when you aren’t. Nothing can separate you from His love and nothing can separate you from His plans and purpose for your life.
Now, receive that love and abide in it
“…O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).
I’m sure you have experienced in your lifetime disappointment, heart brokenness, hurt, anger, resentment or rejection.
Hurtful situations can cripple us to the point to where our walk is no longer the same. Where our views on everything and everyone is now negative. Whether it was a person or a situation, we find that the negative experience has left us marred.
So how does God respond? He keeps us on His wheel and shapes us until we are pleasing in His eyes. God is fully aware of your marred heart and He wants to make you into a beautiful vessel that He can fully use.
It’s a gradual process that you may not see with your physical eyes, but with every act of obedience and every decision to cooperate with God, you will find yourself becoming a vessel that is well-pleasing to God.
Always remember God hears your voice and He knows what you’re going through and He cares about every detail of your life.
He can and will open great doors for you that have seemed impossible. He will open doors in His timing and will respond to your voice
Trust in Him.
“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 (KJV)
There are no boundaries, no borders, and no limits to what God can do in your life.
Just when you think there is absolutely no way out, God comes through for you and makes a way out of no way; He comes in and turns your life and your situation completely around.
Just when you thought that it was over for your relationships because too many hurtful things had been said and done, God comes in and makes it better than before. God can repair what’s missing in your life, can bring dead situations to life again, and can do the impossible for you!
Father,
All things are possible with You. Nothing is impossible for You to work out, no problem is too big for You to fix, no heart is too hard for You to soften, no life is too far gone for You to resurrect. I take the limitations off of you now, and I put my trust in Your ability to make a way out of no way for me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
The Lord is with us in all circumstances, no matter what each day brings.
Whether your day is full of health or sickness, joy or sadness, comfort or pain, God’s promise remains for all who believe in Him as Savior: “I am with you.”
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. Acts 18:9-11 (NIV)
What happens when we give in to instant gratification? We give up what’s important for what’s immediate. We want what we want and we want it right now. We don’t want to wait. Waiting’s boring, it’s passive, it’s more fun to get things now.
What this is really all about, is waiting on God. A lot of times God wants us to wait for things, wait on Him because He has something better in store for us
Waiting causes us to trust in God and depend on Him. When we wait on God and His timing, it causes us not to do things on our own, but instead we get the blessing of seeing God at work, His will unfold, and seeing Him make things happen for us.
So what areas of your life do you need to do better at waiting? Where do you need to be more patient and just trust God in His timing?
Purity is about being clean in what we see, what we say, what we think and how we feel. These things ultimately determine how we act (what we do). It’s an internal state of being “clean” that produces positive outward actions. Purity is what keeps us knowing and doing what’s right.
It's as practical as not getting angry or frustrated or jealous of others, but being patient and happy for them. Or choosing not to swear/speak profane words when you hear others do it, but being clean in the things you say. Or it also could be on the inside not thinking bad things, but keeping your mind clean and only thinking about good things. Or even not looking at or watching things that you know you shouldn’t.
Only you know the areas of your life that you need to clean up a little bit or a lot...
When we can figure out how to live our lives with purity, then we’ll start to act the way God intended for us to act.
All of us will be tempted at some point in our lives. We know that even Jesus was tempted. But, it becomes wrong when we give in to the temptation and do something we know isn’t right.
Temptation, always looks good at first. It could tempt us toward something we actually want to do, but in reality, it promises something that it can’t deliver.
When we give in to it, we buy into a lie. Temptation will lead you to do wrong.
We need to learn to recognize when we’re being tempted to do something that we know isn’t right, and give it over to God. Only He can give us the strength to overcome.
“For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11
Way before you realize you have a need, God has already prearranged a provision for that need to be met.
God knows what you’re going through and He cares. No matter what you have lost, you will see God’s Providence in your life. He will turn your deep sorrow into great joy.
God desires to fill every valley, every emptiness, every hole that’s been carved in your heart. “No good thing will I withhold from you” says the Lord “I am your sun and I am your shield.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” Colossians 2:6-7(NKJV).
We have roots that dig deep into our knowledge of God and who He is in our lives.
It doesn’t matter what the enemy is TRYING to do, all that matters is what Jesus has ALREADY DONE on the cross! Let us not uproot and give up! We must hold on and become even more rooted and grounded in God’s love. We must plant our feet and be rock-solid believers. We must let His words permeate our heart and soul to the very core of who we are. When we do this, we will see that the enemy will not be able to win in our lives.
Through Jesus Christ, we are victorious! We are overcomers! We are champions! God is greater than anything we will ever face in this life and with His help we can do all things!
