I Believe

One of my favorite parts of "The Polar Express" is when the little boy says "I believe".  He had lost his belief in Santa but through a set of circumstances he again believed in Santa.  I would like to say that there is a huge difference between Santa & my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.  Christ asks us to have child like faith.  I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that lately.  Today's verse is Genesis 15:6 NLT.  It says, "And Abraham believed The Lord, & The Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith".  The part I've been thinking about is "believed The Lord".  Too often we believe our circumstances, other people, news reports, medical reports, financial statements, when we really need to believe what God says.  We need to ask what Gods word says about us & our situation.  Then we need to decide are we going to believe what I Am says or are we going to take someone else's word about us.  I want to encourage you to believe God.  He made you.  He knows you better than anyone else does.  He knows your past, present, & future.  So if He says it, trust Him& believe Him.  He knows what He's talking about.

Peace

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts & minds in Christ Jesus.(Phillipians 4: 7 NIV)

Peace can be a hard thing to come by.  Circumstances are always trying to rob us of our peace.  Today I would like to encourage you with this verse that even in crazy circumstances, you can have peace.  You see the peace that comes from God is bigger & stronger than any of those circumstances.  Keep your focus on Him during the storm.  Let that peace guard your hearts & minds.  Let it wash over them & cover them.  Worries, fears, & anxieties, can't get through Gods peace.  So today whatever is trying to take your peace away, remember God is big enough to handle it.  He loves you & He has great plans for you.  Claim this verse, focus on the good

Faith, Love, Hope

We continually remember before our God & Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love & your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 1:3 NIV)

As I was reading this today, it gave me the thought that this is how great things start.  What a thre step process.  Step one is faith.  In order to do something great you have to start with faith.  Faith is what causes you to be able to do something bigger than yourself.  It forces you to stop relying on your power & start relying on Gods power.  Faith is what let's you do something even when everyone else tells you it's impossible.  You have to start with faith.
     Step number 2 is love.  You have to have love if you're going to be pushed to attempt something great.  I think love is a two parter.  The first part would be love for what you are doing.  In order to do something great, you will need that love to keep you going when the work gets hard.  Without love for what you are doing the work will get to hard & you'll give up because it simply becomes work.  The second part of it is love for who you are doing it for.  First of all you need to be doing it for Christ which will in turn cause you to love others & therefore attempt something great for them.  When we put Christ first it gives us the love for others to serve them.
      Step number 3 is hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  When we start the journey in faith, we're excited about the vision of what we believe will happen.  Then we add love & that love pushes us when things get tough.  Hope in Jesus Christ is what allows us to stay the course when Satan & others start telling us why this could never happen.  Those times will come when you try to do something great for Christ.  We just have to remember where our hope lies.  It's not in us, it's in Jesus Christ.
     So today get your faith up.  Step out of the boat.  That's how you walk on water.  Let your love for Jesus Christ & for others propel you to do that great work.  And always remember that your hope is in Jesus Christ.  There's nothing He can't do!

Preparation

So Jesse sent for him.  He was dark & handsome, with beautiful eyes.  And The Lord said,"This is the one; anoint him." (1 Sam. 16: 12 NLT)

So here's David, the youngest son, & Hes just been anointed king.  He should've been on cloud nine.  This was his time, God had declared it.  But it wasn't to happen all of a sudden.  David would have to go through many trials, struggles, & tests before He was ready to be king. God had to use all of those things in David's life before he could be the king that god needed him to be.  David had to go out with Gods help & fight battles & defeat giants.  David had to learn restraint & to follow God in all things before God could use him .  I think today it's no different.  God has a plan for your life.  That plan might not be coming about as fast as you would like & there might be a lot of struggles to go through but God is using it all to prepare you.  Trust God through the struggles & ask Him to reveal to you what He's trying to show you.  Trust His plan.  If God put the plan inside you, He will bring it to pass.  The rest is just the preperation process.

Know What You Believe

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow & deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition & the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.  ( Col. 2:8 NIV)

In today's world, it is extremely important to know what we believe as Christians.  People will try to twist Gods word, cite the latest polls, & give you all the reasons why things have changed & we need to as well.  As Christians our only guide is to be Gods word.  It doesn't change.  If we don't know what Gods word says, it is easier for us to be deceived.  We have to be spending time studying Gods word on our own.  We need to be in bible study with others.  We have to spend time in prayer daily.  During our prayer time we need to spend time talking with God & also listening to God.  If we will do these things, we can discern when the philosophy is hollow & deceptive or it just goes against Gods word.  It's up to us to know what we believe because if we don't the world will be quick to tell us what we should believe & the world is not our guide.  So today study, teach your kids, be the influence.  It's our best protection.

Build up

Therefore encourage one another & build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.  (1 Thess. 5:11 NIV)

Today when I woke up, I found out that a friend of mine had finished her journey here on earth & was called home to he withe The Lord. She had battled for a long time & god said it was time for her to rest.  I didn't know her well but got to know her through my cousin, hoping that my devotions would encourage her.  Little did I know that through that journey, it would be her to encourage me as I would later have cancer removed from my arm.  As she was going through her struggle, she was still encouraging others & trying to help others, even when her situation was so difficult. As I heard the news today, my thoughts went to her family who will remain in my prayers.  But it also got me thinking how we need to he about the business of encouraging people.  There are so many people in this world trying to tear down & destroy & we as Christians need to let Christ work through us to build up , repair, & encourage others.  We don't know what people are dealing with or going through in their day.  Everyone could use a smile, a kind word, or a helping hand.  Those people should be able to depend on us to be those things.  Sometimes it's even our own families who are in need of one of those things.  Maybe it was a rough day at school, work, practice, etc. & they just need a hand up.  Sometimes it just means taking our focus off of us & our problems & asking God how we can help someone else.  Thank you to all of the encourages I have in my life, you are a great blessing.  Today the world lost an encourager, now it's up to us.

Hold My Hand

For I am The Lord, your God, Who takes hold of your right hand & says to you, do not fear; I will help you (Is. 41: 13 NIV)

Today I want you to take a break from your worries, fears, & doubts.  I want you to picture yourself walking along a winding road as the sun starts to disappear & you can start hearing the sounds that you hear at night that have those ominous noises.  You start feeling nervous, uncertain, & fear starts to creep in.  You can't see what's ahead & the noises are numerous & sound very big.  All of a sudden someone walks up, takes you by your hand & says "Do not fear, I will help you".  As you look up, things start getting brighter, the sounds become a little less ominous, & you look into the face of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.  Suddenly fear has turned into overwhelming peace as you realize there's nothing that Christ can't bring you through untouched.  Now that's a picture but it's real life.  Christ has you by the hand t & there's no reason to fear as you walk through the scary things in life.  When you know He's walking with you, things aren't as scary& if those fears & doubts start making noise again, focus on that picture & most importantly focus on the face of the Savior.  His face will make your fears melt away.

Be Strong

Finally be strong in The Lord & in His mighty power (Eph.  6:10 NIV)

Sometimes in life you don't always feel strong.  There are times you feel blindsided, ganged up on, overwhelmed, & just flat out heat up.  And just for good measure you usually have at least one person  who is willing to point out how bad it is & just how beat up you looked.  You're strength might be low, who knows it might even be out but the good news is God has plenty of power & you can be strong in His power.  In my experience, Satan tries to keep you distracted when you're doing Gods work.  He doesn't want you being effective.  He thinks if he can keep chipping away at you he can stop you from doing what God has for you to do.  Remind him that you are not operating on your power, you are operating on the infinite power of Jesus Christ & Christ has already won that battle.  So if you are feeling weak & defeated, I am declaring that you are strong in The Lord & in His mighty power.

Perfect Peace

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in You (Is. 26:3 NIV)

I'm learning to at least recognize better when my focus is greeting off of Christ.  I'd like to get where it just stayed there instead of recognizing when it's gotten on to something else.  I guess that's why they wrote that song "He's Still Working On Me".  When my focus starts to drift my peace starts to leave.the funny thing is I start out so focused on Christ in the morning & then fear comes along,or frustration pays a visit, or someone says something to offend me & all of a sudden my mind is not so steadfast on God.  Buts signet better at recognizing it I am hopeful that I can get it back on Christ before it drifts too far away. Satan wants our peace because he knows if he can take it, we will become ineffective for the work Christ has for us to do.  If he can't have us, He wants to keep us from reaching others.  I want that peace. I want my focus to stay where it's supposed to be. I want to be effective for Christ.  So as I said earlier, He's still working on me & I'm going to try to keep learning.

Not My Life

I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central.  It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, & I am no longer driven to impress God.  Christ lives in me.  The life you see me living is not mine" , but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me & gave Himself for me. (Gal. 2:20 Message)

I am learning & I admit sometimes struggling with always letting God have control of everything.  I think I've come a long way but I know I still have a long way to go.  As humans we rationalize why what we do is alright.  Maybe we think we have reason to be mad at somebody, want to get back at somebody, put our priorities before Gods, or many other things.  Maybe it's that one little area that we're not ready to let go of.  It could even be our finances, job, family, or a habit that we have.  The bottom line is that when we made Jesus Christ LORD of our life, we gave up control.  In today's society we are taught that we have rights, to stand up for ourselves, & to not let people take advantage of us.  Gods word teaches us to yield to His will even when that is difficult for us.  If we are Christians & we are called to be different than the world, putting Gods will & putting others first is a great way to show Christ. If we will let go of our ego & realize that our life now belongs to Christ, God will be able to do great things with us.  We will probably walk around a lot happier as well.

The Good Part

But only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her (Lk. 10: 42 NASB)

In the NASB version, it says Martha was distracted.  She was running around trying to do all of these things (which was distracting  her) & she was missing the main thing.  She was distracted by activities & was missing Christ.  How many times do we do that?  Mary realized what (who) was the main thing & she was sitting at His feet listening intently.  I think today we so much need to get away from the hecticness of the world & just sit at the Saviors feet & listen.  Don't talk, don't be distracted, just fix your eyes on Him & listen to His voice. You might be thinking that would be nice if you just had time to do that.  I think we might be amazed at how much time we had if we just sat & listened to our Lord & Savior.  Today I got the opportunity to sit everything aside & just spend the day with my kids.  I couldn't have spent my time any better today.  Before I did that, I took time to just get away with Christ which set everything on the right track.  I spent the evening enjoying time with my wife & kids.  I didn't do a thing off of a to do list today but today I did the more important things.  I want to encourage you to find time especially during this season to remember the main things.

Fully Persuaded

Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised (Rom. 4:21 NIV)

Here it is talking about Abraham believing that God would do what He had promised him.  By visible circumstances, Abraham had every reason to give up & think that he must have heard God wrong.  At the age of Abraham & Sarah's age, Gods promise seemed impossible.  That's what God delights in, doing the impossible. But we have to stay in faith.  We have to believe God can do the impossible.  God is bigger than the medical report, financial report, or relationship that seems forever broken. God can revive the country that seems like it's too late. But we have to remain faithful.  We have to keep praying & believing. We have to keep working.  When the world says "give up" remember that God says Get up".  I choose to believe God.  His track record is a lot better.

Take it captive

We demolish arguments & every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, & we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5 NIV)

This verse has two great thoughts that hit me today & that I needed to be reminded of.  The first one is about demolishing arguments that go against God. One phrase I was reading about the other day was "godless chatter" .  I have heard a lot of godless chatter lately.  As people talk about things it reminds me of the importance of a "relationship" with Christ.  I was probably first introduced to these types of "arguments" in college with my philosophy instructor.  He would ask all of the questions about whether God really exists or not & give all of the reasons he thought that He didn't.  Since then I have heard a lot of those similar arguments from people who do not believe God exists.  When asked to explain why I believe He is who He says He is, I keep going back to that relationship.  The more I have gotten into Gods word & spending time with Him in prayer & watching Him work in my life & so many others, I have no doubt that I serve a risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
     The second thing is taking every thought captive.  This is one I can have trouble with.  I'm a thinker & if I'm not careful, Satan sneaks in lies to me & allows me to run them over & over in my mind.  This verse reminds me to take each thought captive & to kick out the junk that comes in.  When I allow the junk to enter in, it keeps me from working like Christ intends just like any foreign substance that is introduced to a machine.  Do not let the junk take root.  If it doesn't agree with what God says or what God says about you, then it is a lie & has to go.
     Today know that those arguments can't stand up to God & His word.  Also kick out the junk before it has a chance to get in.  Stay in Gods word & both of these things will come much easier.

Find Rest

Come to Me, all you who are weary & burdened, & I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28 NIV)

Anybody in need of rest? I know sometimes I feel like I'm stuck on the merry-go-round & can't get off.  It's just race from here to there, fight this problem then that problem, jobs, kids activities, & how do we keep up.  Then there's church activities, & other activities that others deem as important for us to do.  Where does it stop?  I would like to say that even Jesus took time to get away from the work & the crowds & get with His Father. He needed it & we need it so that we can get recharged to be effective in our life for Christ.  The other cool thing is that if you are feeling burdened,you can go to Him leave that burden there & lighten your load. Or maybe the battle you're going through has been a long hard fight & you just need that refreshment that only Christ can bring. Go to Him, leave the burden there, get rest, & come back ready to do His work again. It's alright to feel tired sometimes, just don't give up.  Before you do that seek Christ for refreshment & restoration

Good Overcomes Evil

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21 NIV)

Occasionally, you can feel like evil is coming against you.  I don't about you but when that happens to me I can have the tendency to want to fight back.  I feel like it was unfair & something needs to be done about it.  Today I was reminded of the soloution.  The real way to fight back is to fight back against evil by doing good, showing Christs love, & living the life He has called us to live. If we fall into acting like the people or things coming against us, we fail in our calling to demonstrate Christ.  As I think back to the story of Christs crucifixion & all of the evil that came against Him that day, He gave us the example to follow by showing love to the very people who brought the evil & brutality against Him.  We didn't deserve His love but He gave it to us anyway.  People sometimes will not deserve our love but we're called to do it anyway.  It's hard today.  There's lots of evil in the world but Gods love is stronger & Hes already overcome the evil.  That fight has already been won.  So God has given us the key to victory, now it's just up to us to follow the example.

Are you talking to me

When the angel of The Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. (Judges 6: 12 NIV)

I don't know about any of you but I can't say I've felt much like a "mighty warrior" this week.  As a matter of fact,  I remember saying this week that I was tired of being the bug.  Sometimes you just have times where it feels this way.  As the week went on I also remember telling myself I wasn't supposed to be feeling that way.  However sometimes you do & there's no point in denying it because God already knows it anyway.  But even in those times it's important to remember how God sees you & that through Him you are what He says.  After all, He created you.  So if the Creator of the universe says that I'm a mighty warrior then I'm a mighty warrior.  Gideon was a mighty warrior, not because of his ability but because of God with him.  Now the neat thing is today that if we are Gods child, not only is God "with" us but He's now "in " us.  How much better is that.  As you go out this week, even if you might not feel like it, declare it everyday.  Wake up & say I'm a mighty warrior because God said so.  We need some mighty warriors to step up & spread Gods word.  The world is battling against us spreading Christs message so it's up to the mighty warriors to stand strong!