God created each of us for His glory and wants us to grow closer to Him and be more like Him each day.
One of the most important things we can do to grow spiritually is to be truthful and open about where we are in each season. This post is about encouraging honest self-evaluation between you and God.
This process isn’t intended to discourage, but to help you understand yourself better and inspire you on to greater personal growth in the days, weeks, months and years to come.
“ANSWER ONLY TO YOURSELF. THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND GOD.”
In your opinion, how close are you to God right now, with zero being you are freezing cold and far away, and ten being you are on fire and extremely close?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
Luke 9:21-27 And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”
In this scripture we see that Jesus was about to take up His own cross, and that He was going to suffer. He was telling His disciples of this personally. They did not have to read it in a book, but they heard it with their own ears coming straight out of the mouth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. We know they heard what He spoke, but did they understand what He was saying? He did not just tell them that He was going to suffer but that those that choose to follow Him would also have to take up their own cross.
Today you can go into a church or home and see some beautifully decorated cross. The cross Christ would be crucified on was far from beautiful. It was used not to just kill the one hung on it but to cause great suffering. You will read in James how we are to count it all joy when we face various trials and tribulations. Jesus told us that we would be hated and suffer not because of ourselves but because the world hated Him and he is in us. So we have been given authority but at the same time this authority does not promise that we would not suffer.
James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
John 15:17-19 This is My command to you: Love one another. 18If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.…
Romans 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
John 16:33 I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”
Acts 14:22 strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
We endure any trial or suffering and take up our cross not for our own sake but for the sake of the lives we can bring Jesus to. I know my personal life has had it’s fill of suffering and pain, but I have not suffered alone. Jesus has been with me through it all. How can I know this? I would not have made it this far without Him. What is more important is that those who have been able to see Him working in my life through the times of trials. This is my witness, it is not what I have done but what He does for me every day, and that He can be seen in my life. His love never fails me. I may hurt and have difficulties to put it in a nutshell, which in comparison to all that God has done for me really is the size of that nutshell. The life in this world is temporary, but our life with Him is eternal. So no matter what storms may rage I choose to take up my cross and trust in the One whom I choose to follow and know that He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The pains a woman endures during labor lasts for a moment, but the joy and love she has when her child is placed in her arms is forever. The pain of taking up your cross is temporary but the love of the One who you have chosen to follow is forever.
Hello everyone, and God bless you all. I feel truly humbled and blessed to be writing this post tonight. Why? Because after the last week I’ve had, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to continue writing. The last few days have been extremely discouraging and I have been battling depressive thoughts due to a personal attack here on WordPress, as well as suffering due to Celiac again. The Lord has pulled me through it all, and He has given me strength and an urging to write to you all this evening. I also read a post tonight that was very refreshing that helped me a great deal that I would like to share with you. This post will be part sermon, part apology, and part straight talk about all of it. I pray it is a blessing and encouragement to you all, and I pray it honors Jesus.
Jesus sees multitudes. That’s an awful lot of people! Bigger than a crowd!
Several instances in Jesus’ life have prepared Him for the multitudes. It is obvious He has been born. To know Jesus you must take a look at His birth. Talk about unconventional! Talk about amazing! Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin?
To know Jesus you must also get to know the God of the Impossible.
Jesus’ birth was questioned, ridiculed, and scorned. He grew up with that – a part of daily life. Being honored and acknowledged as the Son of God was not a part of His daily life.
So, if you were not born in accordance with the status quo, don’t let it depress you – it is not something you caused or can change. Besides, you share very good company. Jesus is…
The question here should be, ‘Who is love?’ For God is love, and we cannot know love without knowing who love is. So who is God? He is known by many names, Yahweh, Jehovah, El Shaddai, Lord, God, and the Great I Am, are just a few of the names that we call Him.
He is also known as our Heavenly Father, our Husband and our Maker. The focus of the message today will be on God the Father. Many of you are parents. As a parent you can relate to how He loves us as a Father. As a mother or father you love your children unconditionally. Some of you who are parents have adopted children and you love them as much as if you gave birth to them. You provide shelter, food, clothing, and love. You may not always understand your children, and they do not always behave, but you still love them. This how God loves us. He provides for us and loves us, and even though we may not have been born to Him, He has adopted us, and made us His children.
We have all sinned and this has not stopped Him from loving us. It His love that redeemed us and cleansed us from our sins. There are those who had parents who had abused, neglected and rejected them. Our heavenly Father will never hurt you, leave, you or reject you. He faithful and true. His love is eternal and will never die. He is the Father who sacrificed everything for all of us. Sending His Son to pay the price for our sins.
He is patient and long suffering, loving us as we are. Not demanding that we love Him but inviting us into His family. Waiting for us to turn to Him and love Him in return. You do not have to believe me but believe in His Word. Read these scriptures and see how He loves you.
God is love; 1 John 4:7-8 and 16, Deuteronomy 7:9
Unconditional love of God; Romans 5:6-8,Titus 3:4-5, Matthew 5:43-48, 1 john 4:9-10
Made children of God; 1 John 3:1, Matthew 5:19, John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, Romans 8:15-16, 2 Corinthians 6:18
He is faithful; 2 Thessalonians 3:3, Hebrews 10:23, 2 Timothy 2:13, 1 John 1:9, Psalms 119:90
His love redeemed us Ephesians 1:7, Job 33:28, Psalm 103:4 1 Peter 1:18, Galatians 3:13 Luke 1:68
With David as his inspiration, the writer of this psalm makes prayer the very first thing on the day’s agenda. When David used his slingshot to kill Goliath, David new beforehand that it was going to strike Goliath. This was because David first connected his heart to God in prayer so that the connection of his hand and eye would go straight to Goliath’s head.
In today’s psalm the writer has much more than one giant towering over him. He is tormented by many enemies that press against him in all kinds of ways. By praying first, terror gives way to peace and confidence that God’s power would win out in the end.
I love verse 8: “Put my tears into Your bottle.” Each one of our teardrops is precious to God who gathers them together so that they would not be lost. When you are hurting and feel alone…
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