You're an Overcomer

I'm begging you today, do not give up! God has such an incredible plan for you, and it doesn't involve this pain that you keep putting yourself through. It says in scripture that Jesus overcame the world, and I tell you this, when you allow Him to truly live in your heart, you have the Holy Spirit reigning over your life, and you too will overcome the world! Do not let this world take you down, but instead let Christ lift you up! There is so much more you have left to do. over and over again in scripture, those who wanted to kill Jesus could not do it, because it was not His time! And I tell you this morning, it is not your time either! If it was, you wouldn't be sitting here reading this right now! Stand fast, take heart, and know that you are an overcomer!

Growth in our wait

"Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you." Psalm 33:20-22 ESV

Sometimes all that we can do is wait and grow. Gods timing is perfect, the fact of the matter is, sometimes when we are waiting for something to happen in our lives that just seems to be at a standstill, it is because our hearts are not yet ready to handle the responsibility. So give it time, give it prayer, and continue to put every ounce of hope in The Lord.

Beauty From Ashes

Have you ever seen the flowers blooming from the ashes after a fire? God makes beauty from disaster, we just have to make it through and look for it at the end. If we spend all our time focusing on what is going wrong we can never see the amazing glory that is in the works through the pain. Time and time again God shows his faithfulness, he ALWAYS keeps his promises and he makes all things work together for our good. So next time something bad happens don't let it get you down, keep your eyes on the Lord and he will fill you with joy and with peace.

I am available

Don't worry about saying everything perfect all the time, your responsibility is to say, "Lord, I am available, use me as your instrument." It is that simple. The moment you stop relying on your own ability, that is when you give God the invitation to speak through your life and touch other people.

Hardened hearts

Father, this morning I am praying for softened hearts. Soften our hearts to love even those who have hurt us, to follow your will even when it conflicts with ours. Soften our hearts to be sensitive to the people around us, and to help their hurts, whether they deserve it or not. Father, you hardened the hearts of the Pharaoh, when Moses came to warn him, and it brought about his destruction. So I am asking Father, do not allow these hearts to be hardened, only to bring about our own downfall, but soften them to do what brings you Glory. In your heavenly name I pray, Amen.

Lost in translation

His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. (Matthew 13:10-12 NLT)

So why, do so many of us Christians so quickly jump to quote scripture for non-believers? Essentially, what Jesus is telling His disciples here, is that He used parables because they don't speak the language of heaven yet, and otherwise His words would be lost on them.

Likewise, when we so eagerly quote scripture to try to get people psyched, our words are lost on them, because they speak a totally different cultural language. So this is what I propose, we must learn to teach them in their language, because once we understand their language, we can then begin to teach them ours. That, is how we will change hearts.

Amazing God

In Matthew 8, a Roman guard asks Jesus to heal his servant, and Jesus says, "take me to him." But this is how the guard responds.

But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! (Matthew 8:8-10 NLT)

The word I want you to notice in this passage is "amaze". It mean to be surprised, to be caught off guard! Can you imagine, to have that kind of faith, that catches Jesus, the son of God Himself, off guard!? For He hadn't seen faith like this in ALL of Israel. That means not even His disciples had that kind of faith.

So Father, I pray for every one of your followers today, that we may have an increase of faith, to actually amaze you, because you are so worthy of our faith. We want to be a light in this world, and we can't do that without faith, Amen.

Trying To Put limitations on God?

God can use anything to speak to us, we shouldn't limit him to voice messages only. Sometimes the smallest things can bring new perspective to us, and sometimes the same thing might not mean anything one day but bring you ro tears the very next. It is all about God's timing and our openness and willingness to receive in whatever way he has for us.

Follow now

Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead. ” (Matthew 8:21, 22 NLT)

See here is the thing, if we are really committed to following Christ, we need to be ready now. He isn't going to hold off on His works for us to go and do our own bidding. We must be ready to give our complete sacrifice, and our complete attention to God. And then He will say, "follow me, you fishers of men."