Year Reflection

I just want you to take the time and reflect on what this year has been like for you. Think about the person you were at the beginning of 1017 and the person you are now. How have you changed? How have you grown, in your faith and as a person? What has this year been like for you? The ins and outs the ups and downs . What's new? Now what do you want for this coming year, how do you plan to dive deeper into your relationship with Christ? Just take the time to reflect on your year, whatever that means to you.

Now I just want to take the time to thank everyone who has been consistent throughout the year, everyone who has read the devotional and kept it going. This has been such a humbling experience for me and I have grown so much. I cannot believe it's coming to an end. Thank you so much, it means so much to me. Thank you so much. I love you and go have an amazing 2018! Be the person God made you to be and don't apologize for it! Thank you! I love you so much! Thank you!

Day 364: Direction: We Can't Do It Alone

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Today's devo is going to be quite short and straight to the point. We are talking about direction as we head into the new year. Today we are talking about taking God's direction because wherever we are going and whatever we are doing we cannot do it alone. We have to lean on God and trust Him because He will take us places we didn't know we would go, but places that we didn't know we had to go. God will lead us on a path that we must follow Him to get through successfully. Through life we cannot succeed or do anything without Christ. We cannot walk by ourselves and think that we are going to get anywhere. We cannot abandon the way of the Lord and think that we are going to get somewhere our own way. That is not how it works, the more we lean on God and the more we trust Him and put our faith into Him, the more He reveals His plans to us.

Sometimes people think that in order to fully live our lives and do what we want to do and live how we want to live that we must abandon the way of Christ, because for some reason we think our way is better than His. I want to let you know that we are not in control of anything, we are not in control of our own destiny, God is, and trust me it  is better in His hands than ours. I know we all want to be independent and we want to do things our way or not at all, but trust me God's way is better. We can try to live our life on our own and try to walk this path on our own but it will not work. The main message I want you to take from this is that we need guidance from God and direction from our Heavenly Father because we cannot do this alone. We cannot live this life on our own. We thrive because of Christ, we live because God blew His breath into our bodies not because our mother's age birth to us. We are living because God says that we can live, and we are thriving because He wants us to thrive. If we cannot even breathe without God how are we going to walk through life without Him. We need Him even for the smallest things in life, we cannot take a step without Him. The mistake we make is thinking that we can. 

All this to say, seek guidance and direction from the Lord, He knows what He is doing. Give Him a chance and trust Him with everything, He won't let you down. I can promise you that. 

Reflection

1. Have you tried to walk through life on your own?

2. What do you need God's direction for?

3. Do you believe that God's plan is greater and bigger than yours could ever be?

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray about what we discussed today. Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Ask God for guidance and clarity as you continue to follow 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 365!

Day 362:See It Clearly

Matthew 7:1-5

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Matthew 15:14

Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Many of us know this verse, it's the staple verse for not judging people. We go to this verse because it tells us that we might be just as bad as the people we are trying to judge. We have to take care of ourselves before we can ever think about taking care of anyone else. While that is the direction we are going in today, I want to look at it from a different perspective. On order for us to lead people on a path of righteousness or lead people anywhere, we must see that path clearly. We must be able to see the path clearly for ourselves but also for the people following us. For the people who are looking at us to help them, we must know what that path looks like. I'm not saying that we must be perfect, I'm saying that before we can lead anyone else we must know the path for ourself. it is a dangerous thing to lead  people blindly. It's a dangerous thing to pretend that we are leading people towards Christ when in fact we are walking towards Christ ourselves. 

As people of God we are called to make disciples to lead people to Christ in any way we can. There is common road we are walking on and that path leads us to Christ. Many people are looking at us as an example of a Christ follower whether we know it or not, and many people are taking the steps we take to get closer to Christ. With that being said, the life we live matters. The way we walk, the way we talk, how we treat people, how we love is like a domino effect we show people the way to Christ. Now if we have the make up of a Christian but we are walking away from Christ, someone who is just coming to their faith or taking an example from our walk with Christ, they will be lead astray. What I'm saying here is to take care of ourselves before we try to take care of anyone else. We must make sure that we are right in our walk before we try to lead anyone else. As rewarding as it is to lead people to Christ, it is more important for us to make sure that we have a solid foundation in Christ before we can lead anyone else. We must make sure that our eyes are clear before we can look into anyone else's. I love the analogy of taking something out of the eye, because if we have something blocking our vision or getting in the way of what we can see, we will not be able to see anything clearly enough in someone else to diagnose it. 

All this to say, we must make sure that we are living a life that is pleasing to God. It is less about trying to live a life that others will want to follow and more about leading a life that God has called us to live. It's not our job to play God, but it i our job to serve and obey Him. When we are living the way God has told us to live, trust me, everything will fall into place. 

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to reflect on what we discussed today, examine yourself and ask God to examine your heart. Take the time to pray and talk to God about whatever is on 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 363!

For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our si

Day 336: Recap!

Day 330: We Have an Advocate

Today we talked about how Jesus is an advocate for us and how he is constantly rooting for us. We also discussed how we should be and need to be advocates for one another, praying for one another and lifting each other up. We focused on 1 John 2:1-2.

"...sometimes we have to plead someone else’s case. Sometimes we have to sit ourselves aside and go to God on behalf of someone else."

Day 331: The Truth About Loving God

Today we talked about how we really know we love God. We asked ourselves question about what loving God looks like and how we can make sure we are doing it. We talked about what a life loving God looks like. We focused on 1 John 2:3-6.

" Loving God is less about abstaining from sin and more about obeying His word, there is a difference."

Day 332: Loving This World

Today we continued with the theme of love and talked about choosing to love the world or God, but we cannot do both. We talked about how the world offers us something temporary and fleeting but God gives us eternity. We focused one 1 John 2:15-17.

"There is only so much the world can do for us. But when we choose to love God, we are choosing eternity, we are choosing everything by making one choice to choose God."

Day 333: Walking Away Isn't Easy

Today we talked about how if we really love something or someone it is very hard to walk away. We then went on to propose the question, if we walk away from God, whom we say we love, did we really ever love Him at all? We focused on 1 John 2:19.

"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."

Day 334: We Are Because He Is

Today we talked about how different life would be without God, if it would be life at all. We talked about how everything we are not only depends on Him but it is because of Him. We talked about how we tend to look over or forget the little things, not acknowledge that God is responsible for even those things. We focused on John 3:16 and Revelation 22:13.

"We must remember where we come from, we come from God, our identity, our life, our very existence is a result of a loving heavenly father. We are because He is."

Day 335: This is True Love

Today we talked some more about love. We talked about how God teaches us what true love is by loving us first. We talked about how His love is so unconditional and so great that we will never be able to fully grasp the capacity of it. We also talked about how God has taught us to love other people the way He loves us. We are called to love. 

"Love can change people. Love can pierce evil. Love can heal or soften a broken and hardened heart. We need love, love is what keeps us going everyday. Love is our foundation. Life is so much better when we love...Love makes the world a better place."

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 337!

Day 332: Loving This World

1 John 2: 15-17

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Today we are going to continue with the theme of love. Instead today we talking about loving the world and everything we think it has to offer us.  Verse fifteen starts off by telling us exactly that. When we love the world there is no room in our hearts for God. Too many christians live in this gray area where we think that we can love both God and world. We want the best of both worlds. We must come to the realization that the having the best of the world means having something that is temporary and fleeting and at the end of the day can do nothing for us. But having God, the best of our heavenly father, well when we have that we have the best of everything. There is no gray area there is only black and white, either we love the world or we love God, but we cannot do both. Our heart cannot be two places at once. We make the choice, when we choose to love the world we are choosing a life of limitations. There is only so much the world can do for us. But when we choose to love God, we are choosing eternity, we are choosing everything by making one choice to choose God.

Verse sixteen goes on to talk about the craving for physical pleasure, everything we see and pride in our achievements and possessions. The world is very much about the tangible things, and how successful we are. Most times when we talk about physical pleasure we mention sex, while that is very high on the list it is not the only physical pleasure we seek. We crave this idea of luxury. We take pride in the things we have and our possessions. I cannot tell you how long I led a life that all I wanted was success, I craved it. I was a very prideful person and the more i achieved the bigger my head got. My pride had to be constantly fed, I always needs something or someone to validate me or else I didn’t feel like anything or anyone for that matter. The more I had the more secure I felt, and when I lost it all my security went with it. My confidence (pride) went with it. My identity was gone because I put so much of myself and my life into  my earthly possessions and the things the world had to offer that when it was no longer there, neither was I. That’s when I realized that the world gives and takes away, but God’s blessings are here to stay. There is  nothing the world can give that will give me the security that God has given me. Nothing can compare to what I have in Christ. Although that was a very hard discovery to make, it was beautiful!

All is summed up in verse seventeen. This world is fleeting, everything will one day be gone. If we want something that is permanent, if we want something that is eternal. I suggest giving God a try. We cannot have a solid foundation in anything that is not temporary. God is eternal and as long as we have a solid foundation in Him we have a life that is eternal as well. We just have to make a choice, do we want pleasure for now or eternity with Christ?

Reflection

1. Do you find yourself living in a gray area?

Prayer Time

Allow your answer to the above question guide your prayer. Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Have a conversation about what we discussed today, and if you are living in the gray area of life make the decision to love God or the world. It’s up to you.

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 333!

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 329: Recap!

Day 323: All In A Day's Work

Today we talked about how God does so much in a day that in our eyes in would amount up to a thousand years. We talked about how God is constantly moving and even though we may have to wait a bit longer His timing is nothing less than perfect. We focused on 2 Peter 3:8.

"It’s really God that’s giving us the means to take care of ourselves. We have to set ourselves aside to see and understand how the glory of God is constantly being played out in our lives."

Day 324: God Wants the Best For Us

Today we talked about how God only wants the best for us. We talked about the common misperception that God is some mean old man in the sky that wants us all to perish. Spoiler alert, it's not true. We focused on 2 Peter 3:9.

"He calls us to repentance so that anything blocking us from Him can be removed and we can have freedom to dwell in His presence."

Day 325: Patience My Love

Today we talked about seasons inspired by the Hillsong Worship song 'Seasons" off their later album. We focused on the lyric, "If you are not done working, then God I'm not done waiting." We focused on Psalms 27:14.

"Sometimes we act as if God is only making us wait because He can, we act as of God is making us wait for no reason at all. But have we ever considered that the reason we are still waiting is because God is not done working?"

Day 326: Thanksgiving!

So today was thanksgiving in America, so we talked about taking the time out not to ask for anything but to thank God. We talked about how important it is to sometimes just stop and thank God for all the wonderful things He has done and He is doing. We focused on Psalms 28:7 and Psalms 30:12. 

"There is something beautiful about acknowledging what He has done and what He continues to do."

Day 327: Ride It Out 

Today we talked about waves and surfing, and what that means is we talked about how living life can sometimes feel like trying to surf a storm without falling off your board. We talked about how sometimes the storm can be very strong but we have to ride it out. We focused on Hebrews 10:32-36. 

"Life is scary, sometimes those waves are bigger than we thought, but even in those moments of fear we have to ride them out. God knows what we can take and we cannot just walk away because we are afraid, but we must endure, we must endure because we know what’s on the other side, we know what it will all be worth in the end."

Day 328: It Makes No Sense

Today we talked about walking in the light, and how if we are going to walk in the light with Christ we cannot have an ounce of darkness in us. We talked about how we sometimes hold on to darkness because for the longest time it was all we knew. We focused on 1 John 1:5-7.

"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."

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone, go back and read your favorite devo from this week. Make sure to come back tomorrow for Day 330!

Day 314: Pursuer of Hearts

Luke 19:10

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Genesis 3:8-9

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

Psalms 23:6a

Your beauty and love chase after me everyday of my life.

How great is it to have a God that is in constant pursuit of our hearts? How wonderful is it to have a God that no matter what, never stops loving us. We all want that someone to be forever in love with us. We want someone that will always have our heart, that someone that always has our best interest at heart. Yes God will send that person whoever it may be, but God is always that person. 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. It’s crazy to think that a God who needs nothing from no one want nothing more than to be in community with His people. He doesn’t need us but He wants us and we are in constant need of Him. Therefore He is constantly pursuing the hearts of His people. We are always on His mind.

God is constant pursuit of His people, He is always seeking our hearts. God wants to be in relationship with us, He want to be close to us. God loves us so much that He cannot stand to be separated from us. He loves us so much that He refuses to allow us to fall and stay there. When we are lost, He finds us, when we are down He picks us up.  We see this over and  over in the bible as God always provides a way from us to be united and reunited with Him.

In Genesis we see God strolling through the garden looking for Adam and Eve. Not that they were lost or He didn’t know where they were but the fact that HE came looking for them. He could have stayed in the distance and looked on and checked upon them from afar. But God is intimate He wants to get close and personal with us. How great it is to have a God that loves us enough to come and find us when we are lost. He leaves the ninety-nine to find the one.

All this to say, God wants our hearts, He is in constant pursuit of our hearts. Give it to Him, HE went through extreme measures in order to have a relationship with us. One being sending His son to die for our sins. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it the rest of my days, if that’s not love, I don’t know what is. Everyday we must be reminded that we need God and He wants us.

Response/Prayer Time

Respond in whatever way you feel led. Have a conversation with God about what we discussed. Open the conversation up with friends and peers.

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 315!

Day 313: Don't Pressure Yourself

1 John 3:20

for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Romans 8:1

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.

Some of us are way too hard on ourselves. Many of us can say that we are perfectionist. How many times have we looked down upon ourselves for something we did, or felt crappy because we felt like we could have done better? How many times have a put ourselves down because in our eyes we did something wrong. This even goes into self-harm, how many of us have harmed ourselves because we feel like we need to be better or do better or we are not satisfied with who we are. I know I have, done all of these things.

The thing about being a perfectionist and being too hard on ourselves is that we force ourselves to grow. However we do it in a harmful way. As an artist I am a very passionate person, and in general I am very hard on myself, and that allowed me to push to constantly being better, but talking down on myself and hurting myself when I was less than I thought I should be was not a healthy way to get there. I had to realize that discipline and being hard on myself are two completely different things. There is nothing wrong with self-discipline however there is a lot wrong with self-harm. God does not condemn us so why do we do it to ourselves? Why do we think of ourselves as unworthy when to Jesus we are worth everything. No we are not perfect and that is why we need Jesus. He completes us. That perfection we are seeking is only found in Christ, nowhere else. No matter how much we beat ourselves up, or talk down to ourselves, the only one that can make us whole and perfect is Jesus Christ.

Many of us have gone through very tragic things and blamed ourselves from them. Many of us have been abused and mistreated and that has caused us to think we are not enough. Well let me tell you right here and now; YOU ARE ENOUGH! God knew you were enough the moment He made the decision to create you. Don’t spend time coming down on yourself because of what others think or how people have treated you. God’s will for our life is not for us to be mistreated by others or ourselves. He wants us to live with Him and allow our lives to lead others to Him. God does not want us to be out here harming ourselves, it is not HIs desire that we hurt ourselves in any way. God is a healer, and He loves us through the pain. He loves us beyond our sin, and He sees us in our darkest hour. We a meant to live in unity with Him, not trying so hard to be perfect that we separate ourselves from Him.

We sometimes put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect Christians. When we decide to give our lives to Christ and are dedicated to serving Him ever day of our lives, we find ourselves under our own microscope. What I mean is we want so bad to please God and to live right that we pressure ourselves out of living. Meaning we are often so caught up in getting it right that we can get it wrong. We cannot constantly condemn ourselves for the things we have done or the things we do, no one changes overnight. We all want to be people of God, living right by the word and living a life free of sin, but we must find the line that goes beyond self-discipline and into self-condemnation, or pressuring ourselves to be perfect. The thing about us trying to be perfect on our own is, as I’ve mentioned before we can never get there. The thing about pressure is, too much of it can cause great damage. Think about how much damage we cause ourselves by feeling pressured by the need to be perfect, and the need to always get it right. We are human, and part of our humanity is that sometimes we will get it wrong, sometimes things won’t go the way we planned. But God is so good in the sense that even when we do get it wrong He is there to forgive us and teach us what is right. If we never get something wrongs we’ll never know what was right. Life isn’t about being perfect it is about the willingness to admit our need of a savior. It is about being willing to learn and grow.

All this to say, do not pressure yourself. Do not condemn us and HE created us and knows everything about us. 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.  Living in unity with Christ means that there is no condemnation, none.

Reflection

1. Have you ever been too hard on yourself?
2. Has your need to be perfect caused you to harm yourself, whether physically, emotionally or mentally.
3. How has God helped you with that?  

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Have a conversation with God about what we discussed today. If you are that person surrender your worries to God. If you know someone who struggles with this pray for them and reach out to them and let them know they are loved by God and by you.

I love you, I really do. If you are struggling with self harm, please do not suffer in silence, reach out to someone, Anyone. Find someone who will pray with you. I love you and I hope you have an amazing day. Please share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 313!

Day 308: Recap! (Kinda)

We're doing the recap a bit differently today. Take the time to go back over what we discussed this week. Whatever spoke to you the most or whatever you feel led to, take the time to reflect. As we reflect today I want to bring your attention to Day 305 when we talked about trusting in the power of prayer and praying in faith. Tonight America needs of prayer, Texas needs our prayers. As another mass shooting has taken place just a month after the last mass shooting. Both together have claimed the lives of hundreds of people. Today a gunman walked into a church and opened fire killing 26 people. So tonight we pray, tonight we lift up those people and we pray for the families. We pray for healing for those hurt and affected. We pray for peace in our world and we pray that even through the evil in the world we will always see the goodness of God. In the midst of all the hate we will love. We love you Texas and Vegas, and you are in our prayers.

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 309!

Day 307: Live as Free People

1 Peter 2:16

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Let’s address the elephant in the room. What a statement, amiright? This statement is such a crazy thing to say when we look at it. On one breath it’s saying we are free, but right after it says we’re servants. Now most people don’t equate freedom with being servants, some translation have translated that word to say slave. We are slaves of God, yet we are free. When we think of our definition of freedom it means that we are indebted to no one. So how are we free but we are still servants or slaves? What if we looked at it as owing the man who sacrificed His life for us our hearts or our lives. What if we realized that Jesus gave up His life so that we may be free from the bondage of sin a death. Freedom for us looks like being given the opportunity to serve God with our everything. As crazy as the scripture sounds we are only free in Christ. We are not bound in Christ in fact we are the exact opposite. Sin held us down, held us in bondage, but Jesus came to give us life. He came to free us from those chains and free us from a lifestyle was was leading us to the grave and nowhere else.

There’s a song that says, “I found my life when I laid it down...I touched the sky when my knees hit the ground.” Freedom in Christ is giving up what we think we know and acknowledging that God God is in control. It is understanding that there is a whole world God has for us, that we cannot see if we are still stuck in our sin. Freedom is being able to experience the beauty of this world that God has created for us, and living the life God has planned for us. The human mind can only go so far, and seeing how far the human mind can go is crazy, but to think that the mind of God is greater leaves me in awe.

We are not free because we get to do whatever we want, when we want to do it. Sometimes the choices we make while free are the ones that keep us in bondage, there are people in prison serving real time for real crimes that attest to that. Just because we know we can do something doesn’t mean we should do it. Free will gives us the right to choose who we want to be but we must understand that every choice has a consequence whether good or bad. Humans are capable of doing astounding things, while simultaneously capable of doing some of the most grotesque things. We are free to choose who we will be, but as for us who follow Christ and have submitted our lives to serving the Lord we know that true freedom lies within God. There is no limit to freedom in Christ.

All this to say, while we are free to choose who we want to be, when we decide to follow Christ we decide to be servants in the kingdom of God. That in itself is freedom, we will do things and go places we never thought we’d do or go. Serving Christ is less about what we can’t do and more about the kind of life we can lie in Him. Living in Christ is so peaceful, so free, there is nothing like it. Freedom looks like living like Christ. True freedom is in Christ.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Think about what we discussed today and how you view freedom. Think about what your personal definition of freedom is and what it is to be free in Christ. How to they relate or differ. Bring it all to God in prayer.

Maybe you’ve never had a chance to experience this freedom in Christ, if you haven’t I want to give you that opportunity. Make the decision to follow Christ and live a life of freedom.

If you’ve never made the decision to live for Christ, or you want to rededicate your life. If you want to be brought into this magnificent promise of eternity, now is the time to make that decision. If 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, congratulations! Do not hesitate to reach and get plugged into  a church. Make sure you come back tomorrow for day 308!