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.
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