Changes

 

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!  2 Corinthians 5:17

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Without a shadow of a doubt, some of the most encouraging words of the New Testament are found in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  Change is one of the true constants of life.  I am certainly a different person than I was ten years ago and I have changed as I have grown and matured in my walk of faith.

The Bible teaches us many great truths about change.  One is that despite the world changing around us, God always remains the same and dependable.  The second is that God requires a change of heart-repentance, that produces an outward and inward change in each of us-obedience. 

When your heart is changed, your life will also be changed forever!  Allow God to break down the walls around your heart and change you forever too!

Joy

 The joy of the Lord is your strength!  Nehemiah 8:10

For the longest time, I wouldn't darken the doors of a church because I mistakenly thought that church-going folks didn't know how to enjoy themselves and live life.  All of these years later, I couldn't have been any more wrong!  Sure, there are some Christians that meticulously attempt to live their lives without sin (it’s impossible, by the way), and in many cases, with that comes the judgment of others and other self-righteousness, but God created each of us to enjoy our time here on this earth.

Happiness is based on performance or on your set of circumstances.  Joy is what springs from God’s love; performance and circumstances don’t mean a thing.  When you realize how great God’s love is for you, you become less vulnerable to depression and despair over disappointments and problems.

The more you seek Him, find Him, love Him, and know Him, the more you become like Him, and the greater your joy will be.  You will find perfect and lasting joy in heaven, but you can experience joy right here and right now by walking with the Lord.

Let My Love Open The Door

 

I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.  Revelation 3:8

Many folks don’t realize this, but all of us are called into ministry upon accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Simply stated,  God’s purpose for our lives is that we receive His love and then turn around and express it to others.

God desires to have a personal relationship with us so that we can experience His love and many blessings on a daily basis.  The church has done a lot to dilute this message over time, but God’s master plan is that we receive His grace and mercy while we are on this earth and then the gift of eternal life in heaven.  There is nothing more that needs to be added to this message, but unfortunately, many people have also chosen to add their personal spin on the what the requirements are to receive God’s greatest gifts…

Heaven is our ultimate destiny and what a wonderful destiny it is!  We must go out and share this news with a broken world that is in desperate need of some good news.   

Again I Say Rejoice

 

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Philippians 3:8-11

When I read the portions of the Bible that the apostle Paul wrote while imprisoned, it’s hard for me to comprehend.  Despite being locked up in a cell and in chains, Paul was able to “rejoice in the Lord always.”

When facing troubled times, it is not usually a natural instinct for us to focus on Christ.  If you are like me, you may focus on your problems and dwell on all that is going wrong in your life-even to the point of becoming anxious and overwhelmed with a sense of defeat in most circumstances. In lieu of my mother's passing, this has certainly been the case, but God has been with me and my family every step of the way and like Paul, I have been able to remain joyful despite my broken heart.  

The heart of a believer should not live in defeat as we must trust that God is in control and that He is good.  We must remain positive, knowing that He will provide for us and comfort us as He never breaks His promises.

Negative emotions are hard to deal with and can be consuming, but we must learn to seek comfort in the Lord so that we too can rejoice in the Lord always, no matter what hard times we are faced with!   

The Waiting

 

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.  Psalm 37:5

In the age of instant ‘everything,’ waiting can be very difficult for me just as I suspect it also is for many other people.  Modern technology is both a blessing and a curse.  Don’t get me wrong, anyone that knows me would attest that I would personally have a hard time not being able to view someone’s back to school photos on a whim or play Pokémon GO (yes, I am STILL hooked all of these years later) in my spare time. 

I call it a curse, because people expect to always reach you on a wireless device, via email, by texting, at any given time, at any given point, on any given day.   We have grown so accustomed to having everything instantaneously, no wonder it is so hard for us to be patient when God requires a season of waiting in our lives!

It’s in those moments that we are waiting on God to bless us that we must rely on our trust in Him.  When we choose not to trust in God with our needs, we become fearful and anxious.  The Bible is filled with many examples of God’s people remaining faithfully patient and trusting in Him, and no story better illustrates this than the night the disciples encountered a storm on the Sea of Galilee.   Every disciple on that boat thought that they were surely going to die, that was, until they saw Jesus walking on the water towards them.  With a simple command, Jesus silenced the storms and waves to be still.

The disciples learned how to trust Jesus during the worst of times, so while we are patiently waiting on Him to answer our prayers, chances are He is wanting us to reach out to Him and wait for His outstretched arm.

St. Judy's Comet

 

"Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 1:8

Our youngest son, Elijah, was the master of prolonging our family's nightly process of going to bed when he was younger.   Now that he's older, I do miss the litany of reasons he would come up with at bedtime to stay up later; tummy-aches, hungry, bad dreams, spiders, the clown from 'IT' to simply just needing to go to the bathroom for the hundredth time. 

Just like any child has trouble understanding the importance of a good night’s rest, we too are in constant battle with God for control over our lives.  And being a loving parent, God is always communicating with us and for us to hear what He is trying to tell us, we must seek Him above all else in our lives.

You see, anything we pursue without talking to God about first, will most likely be in vein.  We must allow the Light of His Presence shine on all of our pursuits so that we can receive His help for the plans He has made for us or allow Him to change the desires of our hearts.

If we seek Him first and foremost, the rest of our lives will fall into place!  

Enjoy The Silence

 

Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer.  Romans 12: 12

                                                                  

Being a bit active and at times, quite talkative, I always struggle when I receive little or no interaction from my 'captive' audience, while making a presentation for work.  The same holds true in my prayer life, especially when I am praying with passion and feel that God is not answering me or seems to be a million miles away.   I don’t believe that I am alone in the way that I feel, as many other Christians probably lack some anticipation of having their prayers answered.

Our society doesn't help us with being patient in our prayer life as we wait for God to answer us in His perfect timing, either.  We live in a society that due to modern technology expects instant results. 

We are to remain vibrant and faithful in our prayer life.  It is too easy to become discouraged and feel as though God is not listening when all we perceive is silence.  I am thankful for many unanswered prayers that I have petitioned God with and it has certainly helped to mature my faith by leaps and bounds.  We must come to a place of understanding His presence is always with us if we are grow our relationship with Him; in doing so, we will have a deeper relationship with God, despite our prayers not being answered.

Continue to pray and be hopeful even if you are suffering; God is always with you!!