Strengthened in His Word 5-11-15


I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

As God's people, or Believers we need to do very few things to keep up with His plan for our lives.
He has given us the purpose of furthering the Kingdom of God; our task being to live a Godly life and share that life and the Love of God with others in one way or another.
God's people are told to;
Love Him – For God so loved the Word that He gave His only Son... John 3:16. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you...John 15:12
Serve Him-- Choose you this day whom you will serve... Joshua 24:15 Feed my sheep...John 21:16 , do to others  Luke 6:31.
Follow Him-- Matthew 4:19

None of this we can really do if we do not understand that we can do all things through Him who gives us strength to do these things.

When I first came to know who Jesus was, or when I first realized that I was a believer; I ran full stop into my Bible. At that time it was just a Gideon's New Testament. If there is such a thing as 'just a Bible', I am grateful to God that my mother won it in her childhood Sunday School class and allowed me to 'play school' with it as a child. That is the way that I came to know exactly who Jesus was, is and will be. John 1:1. In those early 'wow' times of discovering the Word of God for the first time I was amazed at all the things I found that were truths. I had not accepted the whole Bible as 'real' but the New Testament was about Jesus, I knew Jesus was real so it had to be real. I followed the Word to dot.
If I had a question, I looked it up. I read the Bible for an hour a day and I grew in knowledge and understanding quickly in those days. He gave me proof that things were true in the whole Bible and I went out and bought my first full 'Holy Bible'.

And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
1 John 4:13-16
The loving one another part was the easiest part of becoming a Christian, for me it was second nature to love other people with my whole heart and I have the scars to prove it! The good news gives me healing for those hurts and made it okay to love even those who do not love me back because of God's love being unconditional. We can truly love people even when they claim to hate us. Its kind of weird to think of it that way but God loves us, and so we love others; His love is so grand we cannot contain it in one or two people to love!

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. 
Philippians 4:8-9

In the world we live in today we must renew our minds daily. The times when I read the Word more than half an hour of digging for scriptures of a Bible study book for study groups, I feel stronger, ready to take on the world and clean up any mess in my life. The days I rush through I find myself coming off short tempered and rude.
I would say if I do not study to show myself approved by God I fail miserably at being Christ like as a Christian should be. The good news is He loves me anyway!
The world can pull us down and tell us how failing makes us non-Christlike and so we must not be 'as good a Christian' as John, Julie or Justin. The next step is telling us 'why bother' to try to live how Christ would want us to live.
But when we do what God's word tells us then the peace of God will be with us and we will not have to struggle to do what is right; we will live the Word!

When we keep our eyes on things above, not on earthly things it does not mean we walk around looking up to the sky, but it means staying focused. When fears attack our mind we remind ourselves that God is with us and nothing can come against us that He cannot tackle if we just give it to Him to take on! God has our back remember? He is our rear guard! Proverbs 4:1-6, remembering that God is love.
After all He knows us; Jeremiah 1:5 shares with us Jeremiah the prophet being called by God and also a truth that He knows us from our mothers belly. He knows if we are choosing to do the right thing, even if we fool the rest. When we keep our mind on Him, Isaiah 54:17 tells us no weapons formed against us will prosper! That means that whatever the people of this world mean for bad, evil or distress on our part God will turn around and find a way to make it good for us if we keep our mind on Him.
Even if we loose our home, friends and family God can find a way to make good things happen in our lives regarding His goal for us. Sometimes our own bad choices cause us to fail, but God can take that failure and give us 'extra credit work' to fix things we have broken. He is like the crazy glue to our lives if we allow Him to be, but when we take things on our own we can totally mess things up.
Again the good news is He still loves us! He will pick us up dust, polish or rebuff us and set us back on our feet when we keep our eyes on Him. The thing is we don't. We are full of distractions, things that tell us to fix it ourselves and that we don't need to bother God with 'that' or 'this'; but we do! We need to give Him everything! From our weak brakes needing to be fixed to the house payment that need to fabricate itself out of nothing; when we keep our eyes on Him these things will work out in His time. Sometimes though its not as easy as we think and we give up our faith to trust in Him to come through. Sometimes we think we know better than God how it should have happened and we blame Him for our mistakes. We allow ourselves to be caught up in the cares of this world! Mark 4:18-20
Lets not get that snare!
Let it go-- and let God help you today.
Let it be-- don't pick it back up!
Walk away! Walk into His presence today. Take time each day to dig in the Word, read not only for the prize of doing the reading but read for strength, guidance and renewal of your mind today!
Dear Heavenly Father Guide our thoughts today, guide our steps, and guide our hearts and minds as we walk through the world we live in. Give us perfect peace as we keep our minds on You and walk according to the Holy Spirits guiding. In Jesus name amen.

Suggested Reading: John 14:1-31, John 4:1-21, Philippians 4:1-23, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 and 
Isaiah 47:1-13