Category: Uncategorized

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

Paul was dealing with a problem but we are never told what it was. It could have been an illness, a burden or a situation that was difficult for him, he doesn’t tell us in scripture, but what he does tell us is that it was something that either made him weak or made him feel weak. He asked for this problem, which he called a thorn in his side, to be removed 3 times, but God did not remove it.

Paul had gone from being a zealot Jew who loved to persecute Christians to promoting Jesus as the Savior. He had believed prior to his conversion that Jesus was not the Messiah and therefore all those following Jesus were committing heresy calling Jesus the Son of God. Paul came from an elevated background, he was smart and he had a great deal of influence while he was in charge of persecuting Christians. When he was made blind on the road to Damascus, Paul was humbled and he left that powerful position to promote Jesus as the Messiah. During his time as a follower of Christ, Paul had visions and would “talk” with Jesus regularly.

With his background and what God was using Paul to accomplish, after his conversion, it is possible that Paul could have had the opportunity to become boastful in how he was being used to further the Kingdom of God. Sometimes God lets us continue to deal with a situation, experience an illness or struggle with a challenge to help us understand that we are not the One is charge. That we are special to Him but that we are not accomplishing the things we are doing by our own power.

The challenge for us as humans comes in we acknowledge that we aren’t able to do everything and that we don’t know the bigger plan for our lives or everything that is happening around us. Accepting God’s grace enables us to remain humble and remember that God is in charge. While accepting God’s grace we should also keep in mind that even though we are weak, God is strong and can always help us.

I believe our prayers are answered with one of 3 responses from God…yes, no and not now. We find it hard to accept the ‘no’ and ‘not now’ answers. In this case, God’s answer to Paul was ‘no’ when Paul asked for the thorn to be removed. God was using this challenge Paul was having to keep him humble. Paul had a choice then, he could resent God for allowing him to face this challenge or he could learn from the situation and accept God’s grace which would allow him to move through the challenge.

It is difficult for us as humans to admit when we are weak and it can be really hard for us to accept help from others during that time. Paul not only realizes that he needs to lean on Christ for strength but he then begins welcoming weakness. He knows that as it becomes evident to others that he is weak but he is able to face his challenges as they happen, then others can begin to see that it is by God’s strength that Paul is moving through those challenges, not his own.

This is a hard lesson for most of us to learn…acknowledging weakness and accepting grace. Have you accepted God’s grace lately?

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:15 NIV

Yesterday I looked at the verse right before this one, verse 14, and in it Paul wrote about new Christians being immature, being able to be tossed back and forth. The idea of being able to be confused by people saying things that are not in line with God’s word. Today, let’s look at the next verse, verse 15, and see what Paul has written here.

In this verse, unlike verse 14, Paul is writing about how we can mature in our walk of faith. Growing from an infant to an adult requires growth, physical growth, mental growth, emotional growth and in regards to our spiritual self, spiritual growth. As we mature as people, we begin to master things such as eating, walking, learning skills, and one of those areas we should work on very hard is the area of social skills or relationships.

Relationships are important in the body of Christ. The Kingdom of God is full of people who are saved by grace and have been shown mercy, however, you would not always know that by watching the interactions we have with each other. An important ingredient for interaction in the Kingdom of God is love. We are instructed to do a lot ‘in love’, accept those around us that society has deemed unlovable, think of others’ needs and serve them, be there for each other when there are burden’s to carry and build each other up by being truthful with each other. Paul specifically speaks to that last one of being truthful with each other in this verse, it is singled out as an important concept to develop in our growth or maturing in our spiritual life.

What does it mean to ‘speak truth in love’? Truth can cover a large number of topics, it can be the truth about ourselves, the truth about the gospel or word of God, the truth about God, the truth about how we are to live. When we don something “in love”, we are not to be harsh and judgmental but we are also not to be so fragile that we are not able to decide what we want to say or look afraid to be having a conversation.

The Gospel or Word of God tends to be contradictory to how society believes that life should be lived. The Gospel tells us to serve each other and the world says we should have others serve us, the Gospel tells us to think about other’s needs before our own and the world says we should only think about ourselves and the Gospel tells us to love each other but the world says that we should only love those who are good to us or are like us and we should hate those who are mean or different from us.

So how do we speak truth in love? Speaking the truth about the Gospel, about how God wants us to live, which is found in God’s word, and about ourselves, our thoughts, feelings and actions, can be thought of as tricky. We have this mix of ideas in our minds most of the time about the way the world says we should be and the way the Gospel says we should be. I believe we want to do what God wants us to do most of the time but then the world creeps in and the devil plants ideas of a selfish nature in our minds to try and lure us into acting the way the world wants us to act.

Thoughts like ‘you are being taken advantage of by others because you think of them before yourself’ or ‘you are never going to get anywhere in this world if you don’t do things that need done to move up’. I believe these thoughts run through Christians’ minds a lot of the time because the devil places them there. It is our job to decide if we are going to focus on them or determine that they are not of God, not what God wants us to focus on and dismiss them, making room for the thoughts that God wants us to have such as figuring out how to love the way He wants us to love.

Speaking ‘truth in love’ can be accomplished but we need to do some things first. We need to be praying the entire time about the situation and listening to how God wants us to handle our part in the conversation. We should be gentle and keep the attitude of our words and the attitude of our heart in line with each other. We can be well meaning but if we speak harsh words, it doesn’t matter if we had good intentions in our heart or not. We need to accept that we don’t know every part of the situation that we are going to talk to a person about, so we should be humble and willing to hear the other information.

Growing, maturing in our spiritual life and speaking truth in love are not easy things but they are attainable. When we focus on God, what He wants from us and follow how He wants us to live, we are on our way. God wants us to be imitators of Christ but He also knows that we are flawed human beings who need a lot of practice and forgiveness to help us get where He wants us to be.

My question to each one of us is…..Are we growing or are we standing still?

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14 NIV

Paul is talking to the Christians in Ephesus about growth and the process of maturing in our walk with God, in our faith. When we are first saved, our faith has been described or compared with that of a newborn baby. We have very little information about what is going on around us, we need to be fed in order to grow, we have trouble walking in the ways we should go and our emotions are heightened.

Some people are offended by this comparison, however, it is the most accurate description that I can think of. Newborns do not know how the world works around them, they are given this information over time. For example, when it is time for a newborn baby to go to sleep the parent, usually, holds the baby and rocks the baby and the baby begins to form the habit of how they should soothe themselves to go to sleep. They did not have this information before.

As a new Christian, we don’t know what we are to do in most situations. We most likely don’t know about tithing or the importance of prayer. We are guided by other Christians who have matured in their faith, they show us what we are to do, this is how we learn what giving back means and that prayer is our life line to God.

As a newborn, babies cannot get feed themselves and if they could, they wouldn’t know what they are to eat. As a new Christian we don’t know that God’s word is the spiritual food we need in order to grow and that we are fed by reading the Bible, listening to sermons and even listening to worship music that is honoring God. Christians who are mature in their faith can help us to build a devotional life that consists of reading God’s word. They help a new Christian to understand what they are reading as well as what it being said during sermons and apply those lessons to their growth.

Newborns do not have the muscle strength to stand on their legs and walk around. As a new Christian, we also do not have the muscle strength to walk in faith on our own. The devil makes sure that we face situations that require us to walk in faith, trust God to deliver us and not give into our fleshly desires. He wants to try and have us abandon our new found faith because as a new Christian, we don’t have those muscles to walk in our faith the way we should. This is when we need other Christians to help us understand what is happening and that part of growth is maintaining our focus on Jesus and not doubting Him as soon as a situation arises that we deem to be unfair.

Newborn babies have very little control over their emotions and have basically one way to communicate everything, crying. They cry when they are hungry, when they need changed and when they need comforted. Their emotions drive what they do and how they communicate with others. They do not know that there are other ways of communicating with those around them in order to have their needs met because they haven’t learned those ways yet.

As a new Christian, our emotions are heightened because we have just found this wonderful Lord who saved us from an eternity in torment and gave us a gift of eternity with Him. We feel like we are all in because these are wonderful feelings, until something goes wrong and then we are not being led by those wonderful feelings any longer. However, we don’t know what to do with any of those feelings or how to communicate with others so that we are learning to control them.

The devil will place people in our lives who will challenge our new way of thinking by making fun of us for believing in a spiritual loving being, God. They will tell us that we don’t have to listen to what the Bible says we are to do in situations all the time and that since God is so loving, He will forgive you for not listening this time. That God will understand if you still act in the same ways you acted before because God can’t really expect you to give up everything that you know and the fun that you have just because you believe in Him and it is not in line with what the Bible says.

When we choose to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are accepting a gift of forgiveness and eternal life. We are committing our lives to try and be like Jesus in every way that we can, listening to Him, not others who use God’s word as a basis for their beliefs but then go off course, making up doctrines of their own that are not based in God’s word. We are choosing to learn from Jesus and those Christians He has placed in our lives to teach us according to the entirety of God’s word, not just parts of it. We are choosing to lean on Jesus when we struggle with life and life’s situations.

None of this is easy but it is ALL worth it to be a child of God, receiving His love and guidance. God knows this isn’t easy and that is why He has placed those mature Christians in our lives to help us. If you are a new Christian, my encouragement to you is to keep growing, listen to God and His word, maintain continual connection with Jesus. If you have been a Christian for a while and feel like you are not growing in your walk with God, I encourage you to find a Bible based church, mature Christians who will help you understand God’s word and lean on God more. Always lean on God more.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

Trust is defined as believing in the truth of something, therefore trusting in God is believing the truth that He exists and will do all that He promises to do. Faith takes all of our heart to be strong, to be able to believe without any proof that God is and is in control of everything. Being “all in” with our heart in regards to trust is to not doubt what we believe.

If we trust in the Lord, we should then be willing to lean on Him to help us through life. When we lean on the Lord we are not able to also lean on ourselves or our own understanding because we cannot lean both ways. Admitting that we don’t know everything is essential to remaining in faith and trust because we are willing to trust that God does.

When we admit that someone knows more about a situation than we do, it seems logical to then follow what that person is proposing. Trusting is the first step to following what God is telling us to do so that we are walking the paths He has laid out. By submitting to His way we are also acknowledging that God has a perfect plan. When we are willing to follow God, He will guide us and help us to walk down the path for our lives.

Do you trust in the Lord? Do you trust with all your heart or are you reserving some of your heart to maintain control of a part of your life?

So, are you ‘ALL IN”?

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  Hebrews 12:1-2a NIV

Have you ever trained for a race or a competition of some kind? I haven’t trained for a race but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what goes into it. There are hours of practice, time when your mind will remind you that you could have been doing something else, something “fun”. There is skipping of desserts and substituting healthy food choices. The mindset of a commitment to continue all that you are doing to prepare yourself so that you are able to compete.

There is a reason that not everyone is a marathon runner, a competitive weight lifter or an accomplished musician. All of those things take a mindset of sacrifice and a level of commitment that not everyone is willing to pursue. I am not saying that we don’t all have the ability to be committed to something long term or are able to sacrifice what we want to do at times to continue practicing or training for what we are committed to.

I am saying that not everyone chooses to be committed to the level of giving up what our flesh wants most of the time and continuing to focus on the goal of training for a race or practicing to hone a talent. It is very easy to say that we are going to do all these things but it is different when we are actually in the middle of it. However, external support helps.

That is what Paul is doing for the early Christians, he is encouraging them to continue with their faith. He is acknowledging that it is hard and that there are many times when they are going to be tempted to stop. Paul is stating that sin can tempt us all until we feel like we cannot resist any longer.

I am facing this temptation now with this blog. I have made the commitment to write a daily devotional and at the same time, I have been doubting that it is reaching people. This leads me to start thinking about changing it from daily to weekly. The devil is very good at making our flesh scream at us with what it wants, in this case my flesh also would like to stay in bed at times or watch television instead of connect with God and write what He is instructing me to write.

As I have struggled with this, I have found encouragement from my family and friends that I have confided in about this struggle, and all the comments from those who read the blog. I have been reminded me that this is all for God and that I should continue praying and asking for His guidance. I will do that as well as continue writing this blog, the best I can, until I have a clear peace about what I am to do.

Most of all I am going to keep my eyes on Jesus, the author of my faith. I hope this encourages anyone who needs that encouragement right now to continue on in their faith.

“My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.” Psalms 57:7 NIV

David wrote this psalm while he was hiding from Saul. Saul was searching for David to kill him because of how jealous Saul had become of David and his success. David was now running for his life with Saul in pursuit. While hiding David wrote this psalm to express how he will not stop praising and worshipping God even when things don’t go his way, even when he was facing death if he was caught. His heart is focused on God and he is not going to waver because he is facing trouble. Instead he states that he will remain faithful to God, and he will sing and make music.

We don’t have to be accomplished musicians or singers to make music and sing to God. He loves to hear us just as we are. He made us and He already knows what we sound like so we don’t need to worry about disappointing him with how we sound. The disappointment instead would come if we chose to not sing and make music as we worship Him or if we didn’t keep our heart focused on Him.

God wants us to keep our heart focused on Him because His heart is focused on us. In times of trouble we run to God, which is what we should do, but I would argue that we should be running to Him or focused on Him in the good times as well.

Is your heart locked on God? Do you think about God daily, talk to God daily, contemplate what He would like you to do in situations throughout your day? I pray everyone does because He is thinking about us daily. Do you worship Him so genuinely that you are singing and making music as if no one is listening? I hope so, He deserves to have us worship Him with everything that we have.

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:12-13 NIV

Paul is writing to the Philippians and encouraging them to not only live in alignment with God’s will while he is there, but also when Paul leaves and is not there to keep encouraging them. I want to address the part of this verse that states that they were ‘to work out their salvation with fear and trembling’.

In regards to the “to work out” part of the verse, I believe what Paul is saying is that they should be active in their obedience to God and His will. Active in trying to make sure that they are listening to God and trying to discern His will for each one of them. No one can work out your salvation for you because it is yours and yours alone. Each one of us has to decide how we are going to think about things, react to things and choose to live life.

When we choose to follow God, we are choosing to listen to Him always and not only in moments that we find convenient. Working out our salvation, to me, means listening to God in difficult times when our flesh is screaming that it wants to get revenge or to not forgive and we know that at the same time God is whispering to us to be kind, merciful and forgive. Following God’s lead and being obedient is hard but possible because we have God on our side.

As for the “with fear and trembling”, Paul was not encouraging them to be in a constant state of fear. I believe that he was telling them to have a reverential fear of God. Not a fear of Him hurting them but a fear of them disappointing Him by not being obedient. People sometimes become complacent in their walk with God and start not obeying God’s directions fully. They believe that they have done so much good for so long that just this time they can not do everything that God wants them to do. Unfortunately that “one” time becomes “many” times and the next thing they know they are not following God’s will very much at all in their lives.

We are each responsible to figure out how we want to listen to God and how we want to follow God. No one else can figure this out for us. Are you actively “working out your salvation” or have you become complacent?

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” 2 Peter 3:8 NIV

Christians have tried for years to figure out when the end of times will be. When the events will begin, how long they will be and when they will end. Prophecy gives us some answers, the Bible gives more answers but this verse speaks to me that we are not going to know the detailed answers to those questions.

We cannot take these verses literally that a day in heaven is a thousand years here on earth. By describing time this way, Peter was trying to help others understand that God is eternal, He doesn’t have a clock that ticks off seconds, minutes and hours. He is purposeful in His plan and doesn’t rush because He knows that there is plenty of time where He is concerned.

Jesus showed us that the Kingdom of God does not function the same way as the world functions and it places importance on things that this world disregards including that our time frame is not His time frame. I know that as a Christian I would love to see Jesus return triumphantly in the clouds now but I also know that as a Christian I want God’s will to be done. If it is not God’s will for Jesus to return now then I believe that God has more planned.

Heavenly Father, please help us to remember in those times when we search for answers to questions that only You know the answers to that we are to rest in Your hands. If we are ready at all times, it will not matter when Jesus returns so please help us to be ready for Him. In Jesus’s precious name, Amen.

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalms 37:23-24 NIV

In this psalm, David is giving advice to others as he has grown older and has seen the mercies of the Lord. David experienced many times, God lifting him back up after he stumbled. This psalm is filled with encouragement for those in David’s time, as well as us, to remain connected to God.

We all stumble, some more than others, but we all do it. One of the most precious times to remember that stumbling will happen and that God is there to pick us back up, is at the beginning of our walk with Christ. When we accept Jesus, the devil ups his game and tries to stop us from continuing to develop our relationship with Jesus. He wants to stop it before we get too involved in our faith, before we are too committed to Christ.

Unfortunately for the devil, the Lord doesn’t give up that easy. He will be right there when we stumble, He will catch us, give us His hand to hold on to. He is always there for us. The Lord will fight for us, He will comfort us, He will help us, we only have to remain connected to Him.

Are you connected to God? Do you know when you stumble that God will be there to pick you up and help get you back on track?

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

Jesus was perfect. He lived a perfect life and not because He couldn’t sin but because He chose not to sin. He is God and He willingly came to earth to live a life bound by all the human limitations we have. Jesus had parents who loved Him but were not perfect. He chose 12 people who were not perfect, that no one thought could change the world and He led them.

Jesus maintained His perfection even though everyone around Him was imperfect. He watched everyone of them sin, usually daily. Jesus wanted them to be forgiven, just as He wants us to be forgiven.

Jesus willingly took on all of our sin. He didn’t have to agree to do this, but He did. He lived His life knowing that in the end He would suffer at the hands of the very individuals He came to save. As He hung on that cross, everyone of our sins, all of them, were placed on Him so that the final price could be paid in full.

Because of His sacrifice, we are able to be righteous in God’s eyes. We are able to stand before God washed of all of our sins. We are as white as snow, innocent, as if we had never sinned in the first place. That is an amazing gift and I am sad that there are individuals who do not accept that Jesus did that for every last one of us.

I pray that as you read this, that if you are not saved, you would talk to God. Listen to Him as He speaks to you. Jesus wants what is best for you, He came to save you. If you believe you are worthy of being saved or you don’t, please realize that He came to save you. He gave His life so that each one of us, which includes you, can have the choice to accept Him as Lord and Savior or not. My prayer is that everyone accepts Him.