Day 365: Direction: God Will Always Make a Way

*I know Sunday's are usually our recap days but in light of this being the last post of the year, here is the last part of our direction series.*

Matthew 6:25-34

25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Okay so today is officially the last devotional of the year and it is by far the hardest one I have had to write. It is more emotional that I thought. However we shall proceed with today's devotional in which we will talk about not worrying about things and not worrying about stuff that is not even here, because God will take care of it all. There is no need to worry about anything because God has it all under control. We often spend too much time worrying about the future when we don't even know what it holds. We spend our time anticipating what will happen and being anxious for no reason. the moment we have is a gift and many times we overlook it because we are too busy looking into the future trying to figure out something God has already figured out for us. So why not live right now, there's nothing we can do about tomorrow until it gets here. I am a firm believer in crossing a bridge when you get to it. Meaning I can prepare all I want, I can get ready to walk the bridge I have never seen, but nothing can prepare me for exactly what will happen when I get to the bridge and when I get on it. I cannot try to cross the bridge when I am miles away from it, that just makes no sense. I have to cross it when I get there. With that being said, we are often trying to live in the future because we are so worried about what it holds that we are dismissing the journey to get there. 

I want you to go into the new year into worrying about what the future holds but having faith in who holds your future. Not worrying about material things but latching on to something and someone far greater than what money can buy us. Know that no matter what happens God will always make a way. In fact He has already made a way, He already has it figured out. Our job is to not try to do His job but trust in what He is doing. God cares so much for us and He will not leave us out to dry. Enjoy the journey to bridge before you get there, and when you do get there walk with God over it. 

Response/ Prayer Time

Take the time to respond on whatever way you feel led, take the time to pray about what we discussed today and pray about whatever is on you heart tonight!

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and enjoy your New Year. 

P.S.

There will be another reflection post later on tonight. 

Day 345: Step Out of the Boat (Take Your Shot)

Matthew 14:28-29

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.

Today I want to talk about the simple fact that Peter got out of the boat. This is a well known story, one of the more famous passages in the bible, we all know that Jesus and Peter walked on water. People who aren’t Christian know this. A lot of time when we read this story we talk about how Peter took his eyes off Jesus and started to sink. Overlooking the fact that, Peter got out of the boat! He stepped out of a boat on to the water and walked. How many of us can say that we have done that, not in a literal sense, but we ask God for something and when it comes we get scared because we have to step out of our comfort zone a bit. We have to take a step off of our safety net and walk towards Jesus.  Sometimes even when Jesus is calling us out of the boat we are reluctant to step out. If Peter never stepped out of the boat he would have never walked on water. Too many of us are missing our “walking on water” moments because we are afraid to step out of the boat. We’re too focused on the fact that we might sink so in order to protect ourselves we stay in the boat where it’s safe. People can talk about how Peter took His eyes off Jesus and was afraid that’s when He began to sink. but at least he got out of the boat, whether he sank or not, he stepped out of the boat, and Jesus was there to pick him up. At least he took a chance. Even if he did sink, it would have never happened if he stayed on the boat. We can grow in our moments of sinking as well. He saw the opportunity and took it, some of us can have an opportunity staring us right in the face but the fear of failure is stopping of from attempting to succeed. Peter wanted to walk on water so he had to step out of the boat and walk, that was the only way he could do it. There was no other way. If we want to walk on water, the only way to do it is to step out off the boat. Sitting there wishing isn’t going to get us anywhere. Why do we sit there hoping and wishing for something to come to us when it’s right there, all we have to do is walk towards it.

We are too focused on the fact that Peter sank. We allow that to blind us to the real miracle here, Peter walked on water. He walked! On water! I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this but I have and I sank the first step I took, but this man walked on water because when Jesus told Him to come he stepped out of the boat and did it. Sometimes we will not know what it’s like to rise if we are never in a position of sinking.

Sometimes the people we have to prove wrong when it comes to what we can do, is ourselves. We often put limitations on ourselves. As my semester is coming to an end we are doing a lot of reflections and talking about our growth. I have come to the conclusion that the only reason I cannot do things is because I never give myself the chance to do it. I took a ballet class this semester and  was very reluctant to do it but a friend of mine talked me into doing it. I was reluctant to taking the ballet class because I was scared, I never liked ballet because I was never good at it. But I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give myself a chance, and see what happens. The things we can do when we just give ourselves a chance can be miraculous. When we take the limits off of ourselves and trust in the gifts God has given us, and just trust in the person God made us to be we will end up surprising ourselves. Even if we do fall, even if we do sink, we will be okay.

All this to say, give yourself a chance. Take a shot, step out of the boat, don’t worry about sinking, just walk. If you sink Jesus is right there to pick you up.

Reflection

Take the time to go over and think about what we discussed today. Think about how you have been limiting yourself and make a decision not to do that. Whatever is going on in your life and you are stuck or afraid, step out of the boat.

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray about what we discussed today. Take the time to talk to God about getting out of the boat and take a step of faith tonight.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day! Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 346!

Day 333: Walking Away Isn't Easy

1 John 2:19

These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.

Something that baffles me about people is how easy it is for them to walk away from something or someone they love. Even if it is for the greater good, walking away from something or someone that you are invested in is never easy. This can range from break-ups to walking away from the job that you have had for a very long time. What I’m saying is that walking away is never easy at least eighty percent of the time.

Something else that baffles me is how easy it is for us to walk away from God. I’m not sure if any of you have ever decided to walk away from God for whatever reason it may be, but I have. I remember walking away from God multiple times because the world seemed to offer me more. The world was a bit more enticing than serving God, so I walked away. Knowing that it was wrong, I did not care, I did it anyway. How did I get to that point? How was it so easy for me to walk away from a God that saved me and forgave me and accepted me even when I sinned against Him countless times? How could I walk away from the God that I had claimed to love so much and had surrendered my life to? The only way that walking away could be that easy is if I was never really as invested in the first place. If I wasn’t as committed to God as I thought. I was not committed to God, not really. My life was not surrendered to Him because my desires for the world was still lingering around and could take me whenever they wanted. The moment I walked away from god as if I was just walking away from a vending machine after I got what I needed confirmed that I never really gave my heart to Him in the first place.

When we are truly invested in God we know what is at stake if we decide to walk away from Him. When our hearts are invested in Him, truly invested in Him nothing can tear us away. Some things might try, temptation might come but it will not be able to tear us away from God. mainly because we know what it is like to live with Him, we know the joy and the peace that comes with serving God. The world may look enticing and it may be tempting, but with that looks are deceiving. There is nothing the world has to offer that God cannot freely give and freely give more. When we come to the understanding of who God is and everything He has done for us in our lives we will want to stay near Him for all eternity. Walking away is not an option because we come to the conclusion that walking away from God means walking away from life and that is not something we are willing to give up.

A life with Christ is so much more than just going to church on Sundays and attending a bible study every now and then. That is where many of us go wrong, we base our relationship with Christ on the number of church services we attend, because we think it’s good enough to get by. Going to church alone will not cut it. The reason we find it so easy to walk away from God is because we are not walking away from much. We are walking away from church we are not walking away from a relationship. Our salvation and growth is in having a relationship with God. the more we draw closer to Him the more we will find ourselves wanting to stay with Him.

All this to say, if we do not have a solid relationship with God we will be pushed and pulled in every direction. If we walked away from God we need to reevaluate whether or not we were really committed to Him in the first place.

Reflection

1. Have you ever walked away from God?
2. Are you committed to having a relationship with Him?
3. Why is it so easy to walk away from the things and people we say we love?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Have a conversation with god about what we discussed today. Take the time to talk to God and pour your heart out to Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 334!

Day 331: The Truth About Loving God

1 John 2:3-6

3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

There’s moment’s in our lives when we need to sometimes check in on ourselves, and see how we’re doing. We need to stop and see if we’re holding up, we have to do a little self-assessment. Sometimes we forget that we need to check in with ourselves to make sure we are okay and everything is okay with us. The word of God is a reminder of that, we need to check in on our spiritual lives constantly, the same way we would check upon ourselves physically. When we find something wrong, we go to a doctor or we do what needs to be done in order to fix the problem. It is the same with our spiritual lives, many times we find that something is wrong and we continue to move forward as if everything is just fine. When we find something wrong with us spiritually we need to take some time with our doctor, Jesus, and make sure that anything that is or has gone wrong is healed and fixed.

There’s nothing like reading the word of God of to make sure your heart is in the right place. Upon reading God’s word we find how to live life but we also find the flaws in our own hearts and the things we need to turn to God for. Many times it is not our intention to lose focus or to disobey God’s command. We are not all walking around trying to deliberately disobey God. Sometimes it just happens and that’s just life. Sometimes life gets the best of us and we don’t really notice things falling until they start crashing down. The question is, what do we do when we start to notice ourselves slipping away? What do we do when we realize we have disobeyed God or went against His word. How do we react when life starts falling apart? We must turn to Him, we must find our hope in Him our strength in Him. If we love God, if we truly love Him we will surrender our lives to Him. We would surrender our hearts to Him. The question is, how do we know we really love God?

I have found myself asking myself this question multiple times on multiple occasions. I’ve heard people say, if you have to ask yourself that, then you don’t really love God. In my opinion that statement is not entirely true. As Christians we sometimes get the idea that we must do more. Sometimes when life gets a little too simple we think that we are falling out of good graces with God, or we are doing something wrong because everything is a bit too easy. However, I do not believe that God wants every minute of our lives to be a fight, or that we are continuously suffering. God gives us a break sometimes. When it comes to the question of our love for God, we must ask ourselves if we are following His commands? That’s what it all comes down to, are we doing what He told us to do? Are we obeying Him? Loving God is less about abstaining from sin and more about obeying His word, there is a difference. When we love God we will obey Him because we love Him, not because we don’t want to be punished or not to stay out of the fiery pits of hell, but because our love for God is more important that our want for sin. Our love for God is greater than our want to not go to hell. Loving God is living in Him. When we love God we will live like Christ. It all comes together when we make the commitment to love God before anything and anyone else.

When I became a Christian the first thing I wanted to do was rid my life of all the sin that was in it. Let go of anything and anyone who would cause me to sin, if you know my story you would know how ironic that statement is. I felt like until I did that  I could not serve God. I felt like I had to start from there, before I could have a relationship with Him I had to be clean. If I kept that attitude I definitely would not be where I am now, writing this devotional. If we want to start anywhere we need to start with love first, and let everything are and aspire to be, be built on that.

Reflection

1. Check in with yourself, how are you doing?
2. Do you love God?
3. Are you following His commands?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Have a conversation with God about what you discovered today. If you have found yourself slipping or have found that you are not committed to God in the way that you thought, now is the time to submit and surrender. Take the time to pray and surrender everything to Him. However long you need with Him take that time, this is your soul we’re talking about.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 332!

Day 328: It Makes No Sense

1 John 1:5-7
“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
How many times have we devoted our lives to Christ or rededicated our lives to Him and went back into our same old ways? How many times have we decided that we are going to “live right” but couldn’t seem to let go of the very thing keeping us from living right? We all want a shot to get things right and we all know that Jesus is the way but unless we are willing to set our lives down and pick up our crosses and walk with Him how are we going to get that chance to get it right. What I’m saying is that we are often verbally committed to walking in the line while actively committed to the darkness. We have things that we are holding on to that will not allow us to walk completely in the light with Jesus Christ. This is what John means when He says spiritual darkness there is something holding us back from God, something only we can point out. Why is it so hard to give it up? Sometimes we are in the dark so long that it begins to alter our vision. We begin to adjust to living in darkness. If you’re in a dark room, in the beginning everything is pitch black and you can’t see anything, but after a while your eyes will start to adjust to The point where you cannot see clearly but you can see figures, you know if something or someone has moved. We spend our whole lives in darkness and the moment the light hits it will either frighten us or excite us.
Jesus came as a light to a world that was living in darkness He literally came to change the world, to bring people out of darkness and into the light. As we know darkness is the absence of light, meaning that where there is no light, Jesus is not there. To walk with Christ all the days of our lives is to walk in the light or live right.
All this to say, if we are going to walk with Christ we must do it full out and wholeheartedly. It makes no sense for us to claim that we walk in light when we are still living in darkness. We must let go of anything keeping us in the dark and know that God is taking us on a beautiful journey and we cannot get to where we are going in we cannot see, spiritually and physically.
Response/ Prayer Time
Today was very short and sweet but take the time to reread the passage and talk to God about what we discussed today. Search your heart, open your heart to God and allow His light to push out any darkness in your life.
I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing Day or Evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 329!

Day 322: Recap!

Day 316: This Beautiful Romance 


Today we talked about having a relationship with God and how it is a special kind of relationship. We talked about how it is similar to a marriage, and how God is committed to us. We also touched a bit on our commitment to God. We focused on Ephesians 5:25-27 and Isaiah 62:5.

" God doesn’t want a casual relationship with us, He wants a marriage, He wants us to be with Him for all eternity."

Day 317: Knowing God for Ourselves

Today we continued the theme of having a relationship with God, but today we talked about getting to know God for ourselves. We talked about when it comes to entering into a relationship with God and giving our lives to Him, that decision is completely on us. We talked about how we cannot depend on anyone to grasp salvation for us, we must receive it for ourselves. We focused on John 14:6.

"We have to come to know God for who He is, we must profess our own faith. We must repent for our own sins. Our parents, our mentors, our pastors, no one can do that for us."

Day 318: Light Up My World

Today we talked about how the word of God lights up our lives, how it livens our spirits and our world. We talked about how the word of God is like a lamp on dark path and it guides and instructs us through life. We focused on 2 Peter 1:18-21

"The word of God has provided us with a way to sustain while here on earth, it has instructed us to live while we are still here but to look forward to what is to come."

Day 319: So Will I

Today was inspired by Hillsong United's song, 'So Will I' we talked about how all creation reveals the glory of God. We focused on Psalms 19:1-4. We talked about how if the earth worships God we will also, and of Jesus gladly chose surrender so will we. 

"Everything reveals a bit more about who God is, it tells us a little more about His love for creation and humanity."

Day 320: When God Blocks

Today we talked about how sometimes God is the one blocking our paths and closing doors. We often blame it on the enemy but sometimes God stands in the way of what we are trying to do because it is not what He wants or has planned for us. We focused on Numbers 22:21-34. 

"Everything is not the devil’s work, God works a million times more than satan."

Day 321: Half Empty or Half Full

Today we talked about perspective we talked about being content with we are and where God has us in our lives. We talked about how sometimes we are so focused on having the glass full that we miss what God is doing right in front of us because we're too busy looking at the glass as half empty. Therefore constantly trying to fill it. We focused on, 1 Timothy 6:6 and Philippians 4:11.

"Sometimes we are so focused on getting to next place and getting more than we already have that we miss God. We are overlooking what God is doing right now because we are so concerned with what He is going to do or what we want to do."

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 323!

Day 321: Half Empty or Half Full

1 Timothy 6:6

But Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Philippians 4:11

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”

Philippians 4:11 “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”

Is the glass half empty or half full? That’s a question that I have been asking myself a lot this past year. I had to learn that it was all about perspective. How I view things, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I will thank and praise God for all He’s done rather than focus on what is going wrong in my life. I’ve learned to realize that no matter what is going on, God has blessed me so much that if He never blesses me again, I’ll be fine.

That’s what I want to talk about today because I believe that how we see our lives has a lot to do with how content we are. Our contentment has to do with our relationship with God. See, God brings all type of fulfillment, He completes us. He gives us breath in our body everyday and gives us a reason to go on. When we live in that truth when we live knowing that God has done more for us than we could ever imagine already we will find ourselves being content with where we are.

I love that Paul points out that Godliness along with contentment is what brings great gain. Before that he says, that to some people a show of Godliness is just a means of gaining wealth, but the combination of Godliness and contentment is something else. When we are live a righteous life according to God and His word that brings contentment, but when we are content in that, that’s what brings great gain. We cannot just say that we are content because we want to gain something from God He knows our hearts and He knows when they are fraudulent. There’s something about being where we are and being okay with that that allows us to really dig into our relationship with God.

Going back to glass being half empty or half full, we may not have everything we’ve ever wanted or desire but we have enough and we should be good with that. I know it’s hard sometimes, I know we struggle and sometimes are hard to get through but in our darkest and lowest moments we must understand that God still gave us life, we are still here and that’s a reason to be content. Although we want things out of life, we all have things that we dream of and God has those in His hands, but we must trust in His plan and His timing and know that it will come when He wants it to come. BUt until then we will be content with where we are and where He has us. By constantly seeking gain or having more we are saying that what we have is not enough. Where God has us is not good enough, what He’s done is not enough. When something is empty or we view it as empty we are constantly trying to fill it. BUt if we view it as half full we are content. We could use a little more and maybe we want a little more, but if that doesn’t happen we are okay with what we have.

Sometimes we are so focused on getting to next place and getting more than we already have that we miss God. We are overlooking what God is doing right now because we are so concerned with what He is going to do or what we want to do. I challenge you to be content, trust in God and His plan. Be thankful for what you have and where you are right now and watch how God works in your life. Don’t be so focused on the future that we miss out on the present. It’s a gift and we only have it for a moment, don’t let it slip away.

All this to say, with God the glass is always half full. Then He will make it overflow, keep trusting Him.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond to what we talked about today. Have a conversation with God about being content. Whatever is on your heart, talk to Him about. Take this time to just pray and talk to God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 322!

Day 316: This Beautiful Romance

Ephesian 5:25-27

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

Isaiah 62:5

For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Marriage is like the realest of all levels of relationships. When you get to the point of marrying someone, everything is different, you have a made a conscious decision that you want to be with this one person for the rest of your life. That’s a big choice, so when you get to that point you must be sure. It’s the second best and most important decision you will ever make in your life. When you get to the point of wanting to and eventually marrying someone, you made it. You did it, you’ve reached the diamond package of relationships. It’s real, you’ve survived the ups and downs, you’ve gone through the awkward moments, saying “I love you” has become normal. You no longer try to figure out who will say it first, but instead try to figure out who can say it more. No more trying to impress them, they know you and you know them. They can see straight through you and you for them. You made it. You have to be completely and truly in love with someone to commit yourself to them for the rest of your life. To want to wake up next to the same person, do life with one person, spend the rest of your days with one person. It’s serious, when you get to the point of marriage there is no turning back, hopefully. You know all about this person, you know their deepest and darkest secrets, you know them inside and out, their pet peeves, their cute quirks, you know what buttons to press and which ones not to press. Most importantly you love this person and more than that you are in love with this person and you choose them everyday. You get happy when you’re around them. You cannot stay mad at them no matter how hard you try.  You see something in them that no one else sees. This is the person that you do not want to live without. What if I told you God felt the exact same way about us? He calls the church His bride. What if I told you that this life with Christ is less than a casual relationship and more like a marriage? We are in it for the long-haul. However there isn’t a ‘til death do us part’ in this marriage, it’s eternal.

Our relationship with God is the realest and best one we can ever have, It is the most beautiful relationship anyone can have, God loves us so much, and I can never stress this enough. He is committed to being with us, He is committed to His people. God doesn’t want a casual relationship with us, He wants a marriage, He wants us to be with Him for all eternity. Our relationship with God, just like a marriage is a two way street. Both parties must put in in order for it to work. This raises the question, are we committed to God the way He is committed to us? Are we willing to spend our life and all eternity with our Heavenly father. God is in, it’s like a groom waiting at the altar for His bride. Are we going to walk to Him? How many times have we stood God up at the altar? How many times have we walked away from the best thing that could ever happen to us? There is no reason to be afraid to have a relationship with God. We hesitate sometimes because we are afraid of this commitment. That’s not just for our relationships here on earth but we sometimes allow that fear to creep into our relationship with God. Let me tell you that nothing can beat being in a relationship with God. We tend to walk away from things that are good for us, sometimes out of fear that we will ruin it. We cannot ruin something that God has planned from the beginning, we can run but we do not have the power to ruin it. Why run away from this beautiful romance though?

When we talk about this beautiful romance, what I mean is that God goes above and beyond for His people. He wakes us up every morning, He gives us everything we need before we can even ask. He is constantly fighting our battles so that we do not have to. He makes sure that we are always protected. He is with us in every moment from the best to the worst moments of our lives. God gives us more joy and peace than anything or anyone in the world. He gives us truth and helps us to grow every day of our lives. God is constantly pouring into us and making us better. It’s hard not to fall in love with someone like that. Someone who has been and will always be inlove with us. It’s hard to walk away from that, it’s hard not to want to serve the one who gave us everything for us. The one who moved heaven and earth to find us and have a relationship with us.

All this to say, falling in love with God is the best thing that can ever happen to us. We must not look at our relationship with God as something casual but more like something special. A relationship that tops all relationships. There is nothing like it at all. This is the one relationship we need in order to have other successful relationships. It’s more beautiful than anything we can ever imagine. If Jesus proposed, how would you respond?

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Thank God for this beautiful romance, If you have never had a chance to enter into a relationship with God and that’s something you want, now is the time to make that decision. If you feel it pulling on your heart, respond today.

f that’s you if you want to make that decision, pray this prayer with me,

“Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sins and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. I pray that you shine your  light on me and bring me out of the darkness and into your light. I love you Lord. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.”

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! If you made the decision to follow Christ today, do not hesitate to reach out and get plugged into a church. I love you and make sure you come back tomorrow for day 317!

Day 315: Recap!

Day 309: Don't Anticipate, Live!

Today we talked about how we sometimes focus so much on anticipating how life is going to go or what's going to happen that we forget to live. We forget to live the life God has given us. We have to focus on living life while we still have it because it's not permanent. We focused on 2 Kings 20:1-6.

"God reveals the plan as we go, so that way we cannot pick and choose and anticipate what is to come. Live life like we don't know what is going to happen because we don't and that's the beauty of it."

Day 310: Proving Your Faithfulness

We talked a lot this week about where our focus is. Today we discussed how sometimes we are too focused on proving to God how faithful we are and forgetting the being faithful part. We talked about how no matter how God is less concerned with sacrifice and more concerned with our hearts. We focused on James 5:12, 1 Samuel 15:22, and Proverbs 21:3.

"Having a relationship with God is so much better than having on a mask of Christianity."

Day 311: Guard Your Heart, Don't Block It

Today we talked about how sometimes we confuse guarding our heart with blocking it. Meaning we build walls to protect ourselves making our hearts unreachable. We build walls not letting anyone in or not letting anything out. We talked about how God want to love us and send people who love us but always teach us how to love, and we cannot do that if we are too guarded. We focused on Proverbs 4:23 and Ezekiel 36:26.

"We cannot allow what has happened to us in the past influence how we love people in the present and the future."

Day 312: What Controls You?

Today we talked about how we are slaves to whatever controls us, and we proposed the question what is controlling us or what are we allowing to control us. We talked about how we should not be controlled by worldly desires but our desire live like and be with Christ. We focused on 2 Peter 2:19. 

"God is not here to constantly feed our desires, yes He will give us the desires of our hearts but first He wants a relationship with us."

Day 313: Don't Pressure Yourself 

Today we talked about how we as Christians and just people in general put too much pressure on ourselves. We put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect, or to always get it right. We talked about the beauty of being a follower of Christ is that even though we are imperfect Christ completes us with His perfection.  We focused on Romans 8:1 and 1 John 3:20.

" If God, who created us and knows everything there is to know about us and knows what we are going to do before we do it, if He finds no reason to condemn us, let’s not do it to ourselves."

Day 314: The Pursuer of Hearts

Today we talked about how God is in constant pursuit of our hearts. We talked about how God want to be in a relationship with us, that He wants to be in communion with His people. We talked about how He took drastic measures to have a relationship with is. We focused on Luke 19:10, Genesis 3:8-9, and Psalms 23:6a.

"God is always loving on us, the way He loves us is unfathomable to the human mind we can never completely wrap our minds around it. And He wants us. He wants our hearts He wants us to love Him, and He wants to live in unity with us."

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 316!

Day 310: Proving Your Faithfulness

James 5:12

And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don’t add words like “I swear to God” to your own words. Don’t show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can’t be used against you.

1 Samuel 15:22

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Proverbs 21:3

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Have you ever felt the need to prove yourself to God? Prove your faithfulness. I feel like sometimes we try too hard to prove how faithful we are that we forget to actually be faithful. We have talked about how we are sometimes so concerned with how we look to other people that we forget to live. We are more concerned with looking like a Christian in front of others that we forget that being a christian and living the lifestyle of a christian is far more important. Have you noticed that sometimes we treat God the same way. We do extra stuff, we do more good deed, just to prove that we are good Christians. We spend our time making vows, and timing our prayers so they’re exactly an hour, trying to prove to God that we are good Christians. Now some will say that all this stuff is just a way to be in a relationship with God. But do we do these things because we love God with all our heart, mind, and soul? Or are we doing it because we want to look good in front of God. We can make a million vows to Him, and swear by His name all day but in our heart is not in it, it means nothing. If everything we do is not to bring glory to God, why are we doing it? Let's not be like the Pharisee's who worshipped God with their mouths but their hearts were far from Him. (Mark 7:6).

Why do we waste our time trying to prove ourselves to God, when He already knows us. He knows our heart, He knows who we are. He know what we struggle with, what our strengths are, He knows everything there is to know about us because He created us. Why not spend our time being in a relationship with the living God. Walking through life with Him. Let’s spend our time getting to know Him and diving into our word and loving Him with everything we have. See when we love God with all our heart, mind, body. And soul everything we do will be bred from our love for God, not our need our want to prove our devotion to Him.

I remember when I went to school for theology, a lot of it was to prove to people how good of a Christian I was, and also to show God how faithful I was. At no point in my life did I ever want to stop acting, but in order to prove myself to God I gave up doing the thing that He put me on this earth to do in order to “serve” in His kingdom. I gave up theatre school for bible school, and it made me feel like a great Christian. But that only lasted so long and before I knew it I am back in theatre school,graduating in a semester after dropping out of bible school. Now some might say this is backwards, but I know that I am exactly where God wants me to be. What I had to learn was, God is more concerned with my heart than my sacrifice. He wants me more than He wants my sacrifice, and I had to want my relationship with God more than I wanted the image of christianity plastered on my life. I’m not saying that any of this, going to bible school, was a mistake. What I’m saying is that I was too busy trying to prove my faithfulness to God that I never took the chance to look up and see what He was really doing in my life.

-Dyamond

All this to say, having a relationship with God is so much better than having on a mask of Christianity. Don’t try to prove yourself to God with clever promises vows, instead love Him with everything. Instead dive into Him, and trust in who He is, knowing that He care for you. He loves you. Knowing that God cares more about our hearts than He does about the things we try to do to prove our devotion. If we want to give anything to God to prove our devotion, we should consider giving Him our hearts. Surrendering our lives, and walking like Christ.

Reflection

1. Have you ever found yourself trying to prove your devotion to God?
2. How has that worked out for you?

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray about what we discussed today, ask god for clarity, and allow Him to speak to your heart.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 311!