Be Better For It

We lose track.

We lose track of time, we lose track of people, we lose track of life, we lose track of God. We get so caught up in ourselves and what we have going on, we miss what God has blessed us with.

Short and sweet version: We need to stop worrying about everything that is wrong with everything else and focus on everything that is right about everything God is doing in us and through us.

Not as short, but still sweet version: We put so much focus on fixing what is wrong around us and we miss everything that is right. I can say this because I constantly catch myself doing it. I have found I am focused more on what God has blessed me with rather than focusing on the God that blessed me to begin with.We lose track of how great God is, everything He is constantly blessing us with. If we took more time to realize how much we don’t deserve God’s love but how graciously He gives it, we would be better for it.

Be better for it.

What Looks Good…

Most people tend to be ok with the thing that “looks” good. Most people tend to go after what they think they want, instead of what God says they need. People have let society tell them what it thinks they need. People lose sight of what is around them because they are focused on themselves.

We forget that God has the last word. We need to, especially in America, become more aware of what God is saying. We need to stop living to build up ourselves, build up our church, build up our denomination, build up our religion, and build up the Kingdom of God. We are losing sight of the big picture. We, not God, are making the picture of life smaller and smaller. Many have acquired the mentality that life is about making their name known, making money in their name, doing things for themselves. We need to regain the mentality that everything we do is about God and His purpose for us. We need to see life, people, events, everything the way God intended for us to see them.

Proverbs 16:1-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

16 We can make our own plans,
but the Lord gives the right answer.

2 People may be pure in their own eyes,
but the Lord examines their motives.

3 Commit your actions to the Lord,
and your plans will succeed.

4 The Lord has made everything for his own purposes,
even the wicked for a day of disaster.

5 The Lord detests the proud;
they will surely be punished.

6 Unfailing love and faithfulness make atonement for sin.
By fearing the Lord, people avoid evil.

7 When people’s lives please the Lord,
even their enemies are at peace with them.

8 Better to have little, with godliness,
than to be rich and dishonest.

9 We can make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of this life, we turn to God. When things go wrong or something terrible happens, we turn to God. When we have no where else to go and have lost everything, we turn to God. But why do we not do this all the time? It is almost like we forget that God is there until we need Him.

One of the biggest issues of today’s world is the sense of being able to do everything on our own. We don’t like to ask for help and our pride gets in the way. We act like we can do it alone and we look good on the outside, but in the quiet we are all wrecked and beat up in some way. We are all caught up in our own aftermath.

We forget daily that we are in a constant struggle to live the way God intended. We walk through our lives and forget that God has put us here to help others through their aftermath. But to do that, we must first take care of our own.

 

To Touch, And Be Touched

 

We don’t like to get to close to people. We like our little bubble and get upset when people creep their way into OUR bubble.

Guess what, that’s when we lose our connection with people. We make it about us, instead of making it about them.

We forget how important it is for people to feel our presence, and especially to feel God’s presence. There are people in this world who have never been touched by that presence. There are people who society has deemed as untouchable.

When Jesus healed the leper in Matthew 8, JESUS TOUCHED HIM. He made an effort to touch the man who had not been touched by the world. He made an effort to connect with the man who no one would even go near. He made an effort to break down His personal bubble and reach out for the one in need. He knew what the man was looking for.

So where do we fit in with that? There isn’t anybody walking down the street with leprosy, but there are people everywhere who are hurting, and sick, and beaten down, and who the world has thrown away, who are longing to be touched by God, who are longing to be touched by His spirit, who are longing for acceptance from another person. That is where we fit in.

I challenge you, as you go through your week, touch someone’s life who is hurting, who doesn’t have it all together, who doesn’t feel like they are important or needed.

I Breathe You In, God

We tend to miss how much God surrounds our lives. We tend to overlook the fact that He is all around us, all the time. We tend to overlook how close He is to us. We tend to forget that we don’t have to climb the highest mountains to get to God. We tend to forget that God has met us in our lowest of lows.

Sometimes we have to just breathe in His presence. In the version of “How He Loves Us” by Kim Walker-Smith she talks about how thick and tangible the presence of God is. When we are so consumed by His presence, we can just breathe Him in.

Today I challange you to let God meet you where you are and let Him surround you with His presence, and just breathe Him in.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=14c_sCyQ2Lo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D14c_sCyQ2Lo

Wake Up

Spiritually, most of us are still asleep at 5 am, as well as physically.

Matthew 9:24 – “The girl is not dead but asleep.”

We have been spiritually asleep for so long that we look dead. We have hit our spiritual wall and have stopped, lain down, and fallen asleep. Everyone else thinks we are dead, and we are done, and there is no more spiritual life in us. But God has called each of us to so much more than that. So much more than just being spiritually asleep.

As I am writing this, I am the only one is Starbucks who is below the age of 35. It helps me to ask this question, why are younger people, and most others for that matter, losing or not finding the discipline to wake up? Not just physically. Many people tend to have a problem with just waking up and spending time with God and hearing from him.

It is time to wake up people. It is time to get moving and shake off the tiredness and weariness. We are all tired and weary at some point. We are all done and exhausted at some point. But that is the time to find rest in God, and not always in a bed.

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. – Paul Valery

A Peaceful Spirit

Today was one of those days that you want to have every day. Bobbie and I spent the day in Dallas and had a great day enjoying the weather. Now we are getting some coffee and just relaxing. Simple and relaxing.

I enjoy having a time to relax with no distractions. It gives me time to recover and rest in the peace that the Lord has given me.

I encourage you, in your busy days, in your hectic lives, in your crazy world, take time to find the peace of God. Find rest in Him. Let your spirit become refreshed in Him and His word.

God, after creating everything, rested.

Successful people stop breaking up time in days, and start breaking up time is hours. From hours they go to minutes. Minutes turn into seconds. In order to be successful you have to take time to rest. whether that is 10 minutes a day, one day a week, two days a month. Find time to find rest in God so you can be renewed and not get burnt out.

“May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” – Numbers 6:26 NLT

He Knows You

God made the sun and the stars, the moon and the sea, the sand and the grass, He created everything, and still He knows us. He knows everything about us.

I could leave it at those first two sentences and bee perfectly fine with just that, but there is so much more. I sit hear typing with joy because of those first two lines. It makes me smile to know that the God of forever knows everything about me, that He knows every detail of my life, and He doesn’t miss a thing that goes on with me. Our God took the time to hand craft each and every one of us, and knows everything about us. He knows your every thought, your every move, your every emotion, He knows you.

I am continuously amazed by that. We can run, and He can still find us. We can hurt, and He still comforts us. We can be scared, and He still keeps us safe. We can wonder, and He can give us the answer. We can be lost, and He can show us the path. We can be weak, and He can carry us. We can feel alone, and He is by our side.

He took the time to make each of us new. He took the time to make us special and just the way He liked us. So why would He not know His own creation?

We forget how awesome God truly is. Not the “woah that was awesome” awesome, the true awesome. The awesome that is bigger than anything we could ever imagine, the awesome that is more than we could ever wrap our minds around, that is how awesome our God is. That same God knows everything about you. Don’t ever forget that He took the time to hand craft you and get to know you before you were ever born. With everything He could have done, He took the time for us.

“When you are tired and discouraged from fruitless efforts… God knows how hard you have tried.

When you’ve cried so long and your heart is in anguish… God has counted your tears.

If you feel that your life is on hold and time has passed you by… God is waiting with you.

When you’re lonely and your friends are too busy for a phone call… God is by your side.

When you’ve tried everything and don’t know where to turn… God has a solution.

When nothing makes sense and you are confused or frustrated… God has the answer.

If suddenly your outlook is brighter and you find rayes of hope… God has whispered to you.

When things are going well and you have much to be thankful for… God has blessed you.

When something joyful happens and you are filled with awe… God has smiled upon you.

When you have a purpose to fulfill and a dream to follow… God has opened your eyes and called you by name.

Remember that wherever you are or whatever you are facing… GOD KNOWS.”

Submitted by: Alexia

I pray that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, that you realize how awesome God is and that you realize how much you truly mean to your creator. I pray that you are overtaken and are in awe of what God has and will do in your life, and through your life.

Simply Living

So many times we make life too complicated. Life wasn’t meant to be complicated. God didn’t send Jesus down to earth to make things complicated. He sent Jesus down to earth to make life simpler. Do you want to have a better relationship with God? Get rid of the distractions, stop making things complicated, and live simple.

Simple: not elaborate: lacking decoration or embellishment and therefore plain in appearance. Jesus did not come to this earth as a king or a ruler, he came a normal man. He was calloused. He didn’t live in magnificence or royalty. Jesus was simple. Jesus was not about hype or flash, he was real and honest. He spoke the truth. He didn’t make things complicated, He just got his point across. He was never distracted and always had His eyes fixed on the job He was sent to do. He did not waste time on trivial matters. He went about His fathers business.

There is a point in most people’s walk with Christ, that things are made way to complicated. We begin to focus on everything that comes along with being a Christian and the religion instead of focusing on our own personal relationship with our God. We lose sight of where God has us and what we are supposed to be doing. We become distracted, and that is where simplicity is lost.

We forget that we are here to spread the good news. We focus on people we don’t like in our church, or how much offering is in the plate. We have lost sight of the simple church. And it didn’t start in this era. This has been happening for as long as religion has been around. People make church about a show instead of a relationship with God. Church has been made into a ritual instead of a want. People struggle to be on time to church and to get involved. It’s looked at as more of a hassle instead of a weekly blessing to be in the presence of God with a group of people.

I am not bashing the church or the people of it. We just need to learn how to take away the distractions and the complications and bring it to where it was meant to be. It was not meant to be a weekly ritual, but an opportunity to grow in faith. And this doesn’t even have to be the actual church you attend, it can be you, because we are all God’s church.

Simplicity, in today’s world, is a hard thing to accomplish. We are always running around and doing something. Many of us don’t set time aside to relax. We are a group of generations that, for the most part, are always doing something. It is hard for many of us to just sit there and be quiet and listen to what God has to say to us.

Living simple is something we should begin to work towards. The more simple we become, the easier it is to listen to what God has for you. When you live simple, you begin to see things around you, opportunities, or relationships, that you wouldn’t have noticed with all the clutter in your life. Stop making things overwhelmingly complicated and just look at it from a simpler point of view. To see things the way God wants us to see them and to love Jesus without complications. Be prudent in your thoughts, but be simple in your living.

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”  ~Confucius

Use Me

There are a lot of people in today’s world that have an issue with surrendering. It is not human nature to surrender anything. From a war to a bite of food, we do not like to give up the things we have. We do not like to let down our guard and we usually put up our walls when things are questioned or when things become uncomfortable. We don’t like to give up our spot in line because we are impatient. Most of the time we, as people, fight harder to hold on when we are asked to give something away. We are selfish. We especially having a problem with giving away our thoughts, our desires, and ourselves away to God.

We have trouble saying just a few little words, “Here I am. Send Me.” Isaiah 6:8. It is extremely difficult for people to grasp their minds around the fact that when you say “Here I am” it means all of you. God doesn’t want just portions of you, He wants everything. You, as a follower of Christ, must surrender your entire self to God so you can be used beyond what you can even imagine.

The whole concept of giving yourself away is hard to understand. It is an almost impossible task. Most of us have no desire to give away every little thing about us away for something we can not even see. That is a constant struggle for me. It is hard for me to look at every single situation and be willing to give the control to God. Now am I saying I think you should ask God what kind of coffee you should get at Starbucks, or what you should wear that day, probably not. But the important things in life that could make an impact, or in a situation you are in, or in your daily relationships, yes. There is something about the guidance of God that can change your life. When you begin to give yourself away to what God has called you too, you begin to feel fulfillment, you begin to experience peace and joy in your life.

Imagine what would happen if entire group of people, any group, oh I don’t know, anyone who calls themselves a Christian, decided to completely give away themselves to what God wanted for them instead of their own selfish ambitions. Sit there for a second and really think about it. If people would stop surrendering just part of themselves, no one would be able to use the words “hypocrite” or “fake”. It would be undeniable what God was doing through each and every one of us. Imagine the impact if any political leader prayed out loud before a speech. So many things would change if people really and truly searched to be used by God. 

We can no longer sit back and wait and expect for others to do the job God has called us to do. Now there are different areas people are good at and different things that certain people can do better than others. But make yourself available to what God has for you. I’m sure you have heard it a thousand times, but God doesn’t call the prepared, He prepares the called. Be willing to step out and sacrifice things for the Kingdom of Heaven and watch how God will bless your life. Challenge God to use you. Trust me, one thing I have learned in my short 19 years of life, is God doesn’t back down from a challenge.

God has each and every one of us on this earth, at this time, and in these situations for a reason. Be willing to sacrifice your desires and your wants where you are so God can use you where you are.

“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”- Napoleon Hill