Day 346: Live For Something that Matters

Mark 8:35
If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

Lately I have been feeling challenged to do more, to live for something more than just me. In a sense I feel as if I have been living in my own little bubble of faith. It's just me and my prayers for my life and the people connected for me. Forgetting that their is a whole world out there, an entire nation of people that God has sent me for, but I am too consumed with my life to see them. I am too busy praying for what I want that I overlook that the fact that there is more than just me. Yeah, I read my bible and pray every morning and before I go to bed, but when I think about it, my prayers are very much directed inward. God help me, help me reach my dreams and goals, help my family, my friends, But what about the other dreamers, what about the families that have no one to pray for them. Being a Christian is more than just praying for God to help us live a righteous life, but it's about praying for those that don't even know they have the opportunity to live a righteous life. It's about living a life like Jesus, one that seeks out the broken just to heal them. Reading the word of God not just so it can transform my life but sharing it so that it can transform the lives of others.

If we as the body of Christ will turn our prayer away from ourselves, and towards the people of God. If we will turn our prayers towards the broken and the sick, and the tormented. If we will take our eyes off ourselves, our religion, our denominations, church attire, and the number of church services we have in a day. If we turn our focus towards the bigger picture, we will discover an entire world of people that have yet to come in contact or know who Jesus is. We will find that there are people begging for prayer. There are people begging to hear the word of God, but are we too consumed with our own small circle to see that it can go further than where we are. It needs to go further than where we are. This means that we have to put ourselves on the back burner, we have to set our needs and wants aside because the needs and wants of God's children is greater. The needs of the person with no food is greater than our need to go out and hang with friends at an expensive restaurant. Our needs or want for the latest pair of Jordan's or whatever it may be becomes pretty small when we see that someone is walking around with no shoes on their feet and no clothes on their back. Our needs and wants become pretty small when we think about the needs and want so of others. We are walking around boasting in a life that we live while we walk past our brother and sister that only wants a glimpse of what we have. There's too many millionaires and billionaires in the world for millions even billions of people to be starving, living on the streets, and living in toxic and harmful conditions. There are too many church leaders and ministers for there to be people walking around as broken as they are, sometimes from he seats of our churches. God didn't give us what we have just for us. We are here for something much greater much bigger than ourselves. Like a doctor has the ability to heal, they know that if they do not use their knowledge to do their job someone's life will be on the line. If a surgeon has the ability to fix someone's heart but does not do so what is the use of them being a surgeon on the first place if they are not going to do what they have been educated to do (I've been watching a lot of Grey's anatomy lately).

No matter how big  and great we think we are, God sent us here for something much bigger ad greater. We all want to matter and we all think we matter and we do. But at the end of the day God is less concerned with how much you mattered to the people that adored you. We are seeking this adoration from people instead of seeking approval from God. We are living this life that is shaped to elevating ourselves. There's no use of getting to the top if when we get there we left everyone at the bottom to die. Why are so consumed with this idea of being adored so much that we are willing to overlook the people that actually need our adoration. We are willing to walk pass the person that maybe all they needed was for us to smile at them but we are consumed with the number of people smiling at our presence. There is nothing wrong with being adored but when we think about what are we adored for, and is it all about self gain?

I had to learn to look away from myself so I can see the world God ha placed me in too help heal and save. We are constantly asking God to save and change the world. We all want world peace, we want the broken to be healed, so we pray. We pray and ask god to do it, and when we don't see a change we pray again and this cycle continues. But did we ever think we are the answer to those prayers? Did we ever think that nothing is happening because we aren't doing it?  Did we ever think that the very task or mission we are trying to put off on God He has put on us?  We pray for change but it never crosses our mind that God sent us to where we are because we are the change that we have been praying for. But we think that asking God to do it is enough and having faith to do it is enough. It's not when the mission is ours. It's not enough when He's telling us and equipping us to do it. Let's not neglect our mission because we are so consumed with ourselves and our small little world.

All this to say, when we look away from ourselves that is when we will realize that God sent us here with a mission and it is more than just our lives involve. We will have to be the least and last sometimes. We will have to sacrifice, the question is are we willing. It less about being able and more about being willing. God wouldn't give it to us if we didn't have the ability but do we have the will? That's the question. Do we have the will to live for something that will not necessarily make us great but will be greater than us. There's a reward, a satisfaction, a fulfillment if you will in living for something outside of self. That's why giving our lives to Christ completes us.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to reflect and respond on what we discussed today. Have a conversation with God about what we talked about. Ask yourself if you are willing to take on the mission God has for you.

I love you all 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 347!

Day 340: A Good Support

3 John 1:5-11

5 Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7 For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. 8 So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth. I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. 10 When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church. 11 Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

Psalms 133:1

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

As the people of God were traveling and preaching they would not accept anything from unbelievers. Therefore it became the duty of the believers to support the apostles as they came to town. However a certain someone was telling the people not to give anything to them, and if they did they were put out of the church. But before that the scripture says that by caring for the traveling teachers we are being faithful to God. By providing for them and giving them what they need we are pleasing God. It does not please God that we let His people and our brothers and sisters in christ starve or sleep outside when we have a bed or at least extra room for them. There’s a couple of things I want to discuss today, one being the importance of support within the body of Christ and also unity in this body.

It is so important that we as a people support one another and not let division drive us apart.  If anyone should support anyone it should be the body of Christ. If no one supports us we should support one another. There needs to be unity in the body of Christ. Our support system needs to be strengthened. It’s a part of being selfless and walking in humility like Christ. We must think of others, it is also another example of loving your neighbor. There are many ways in which we can support each other that extends far beyond lending a helping hand or giving someone food. When we think of things like being generous we often only apply that generosity to people who are less fortunate than us. But what if we applied that generosity to our brothers and sisters in christ? What if we started showing up for one another and being there for one another? What if we just decided to cheer each other on? We all need a good support group and the body of Christ should be just that. It’s more than being a cheerleader for each other, but it’s not just praying and loving from a distance either. As an artist one of the most amazing things to see is artists supporting other artists. Art in any form is a profession often looked down upon by many, but we are a thriving community because we support one another’s work and art. We believe in one another when no one else does. Can the body of Christ be like this. The body of christ thrives because we are all together. We are one body moving through life together. We thrive because we lift one another up, we are there for one another. We cannot count on the world but we can count on one another. We are doing the will of God when we decide to support one another. This is why unity within the body of Christ is so important.

The scripture talks about how Diotrephes would kick anyone out of the church when they helped the travelers who came to preach the gospel, because he wanted to be the leader. We cannot allow division in the body of Christ. We cannot allow people to come in and try to stop us from being there for one another. We stand as a united front, when one falls we are all there to strengthen and pick them back up. When one is in need we are all there to help and give where we can.

It reminds me of the church in the books of Acts when the believers sold their positions and brought them to the church so that no one would be in need.

Acts 4:32-35

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.

All this to say, be supportive of one another. Not just in church, but in life. Go support that friend at their show, help with that fundraiser. We must be cheerleaders for one another, being a support group from heaven. Take the time to be there for someone else, support isn’t a one time thing, it’s continuous.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Whatever is on your heart talk to God about it. Pray for unity and support within the body of Christ.

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 341!

Day 338: Show Up!

Matthew 7:7

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Contrary to the popular belief, acting is hard. There’s so much work that goes into it, more than just reading a script and saying lines, anybody can do that. But a real actor makes you believe the lines, makes you feel what they are talking about, connecting with the audience and the other characters. We put all the work in behind the scenes so the performance you see looks real and effortless. With that being said, one of the best things my teacher has said to me was, ‘half the job of an actor is to just show up, and then you keep showing up.’ Meaning, we have to be there of we want to work we have to show up to rehearsal, ad before that we have to show up to the audition if we want the job. There are two points I want to make today. One being that if we want anything from God we have to make the effort to show up. The second being if we want anything out of life, we have to make the effort to show up.

Matthew 7:7 is a scripture that I have been hearing all my life. I have heard people talk about it in sermons, conversations, and bible studies. What I grew to understand about the scripture is that if we want something we have to ask. If we want the door to open we have to knock on it. If we want to find something we have to look for it. The scriptures are more literal sometimes than we think. A lot of times we think we are entitled to receive extra things from God so we do not ask. God has given us so much already that if He never does anything else He has done enough. We get to a point when we want the presence of God in our lives but we stop seeking His face. Or we want a door to open in our lives and we’re not knocking because we expect God to do exactly what we want when we want it. God will open doors in our lives but sometimes He wants to see that we have enough faith to knock, that we are willing to take a step, and sometimes that step is knocking on a door. This scripture is a testament that we give what we get, and in order to get something we have to give. We have to take the first step. God is already there waiting for us to show us, it’s us who keep Him waiting. We must make the decision to take the first step toward Him and see where it takes us.  

With that being said, we as humans sometimes forget that life is full of opportunities but only if we choose to take them. Our generation has been called entitled on many occasions, they say we think the world owes us something. While I disagree with that notion, I do believe that we must understand that things aren’t going to come knocking on our doors. God has blessed each and every one of us with a purpose and sometimes we use being called by God as an excuse as to why we can’t get up and do something. We sometimes use God’s calling on our lives as an excuse to do nothing or an excuse not to put any effort into our lives but expect so much out of it. What I’m saying is that God will open a door but He’s not going to walk through it for us. God took the first step by carving out a path for us we have to choose to walk it. As  performer one thing I know for a fact is that if I do not go the audition I will not get the part. If we do not first take a step we will never get to where we are going. If we do not at least knock on the door it will not be opened. If we never ask the question we’ll always sit wondering what the answer was.

All this to say, just show up. Make an effort to do something and not hide away. Show up in your relationship with God, take a step of faith towards Him and watch what He does. Show up for life, whatever you want, whatever God has called you to do or be, show up. It’s scary but it’s so worth it, because God is already there. He’s just waiting on us to show up, sometimes that’s all we have to do. We can’t flake on God, if we do, not only are flaking on Him but we’re flaking on ourselves.

Make the effort, just show up! Dare to make an effort.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to think about and pray about what we discussed today. Ask yourself if you are showing up in life, in your relationship with God. Take the time to talk to God about whatever you discovered today and whatever is on your heart.

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 339!

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 330: We Have An Advocate

1 John 2:1-2

“He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”
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Advocate-a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; intercessor.

We all want someone to be on our side. We all look for someone at some point in our lives to be an advocate for us to intercede for us and speak up for us when no one else is listening to us. It feels good to have someone fighting for us and pleading on our behalf. It feels even better to have someone on our side or in our corner even when we’re wrong. It’s always nice to have someone rooting for us and having our back through our darkest times in our lives. An advocate is someone who fights for you, someone who pleads and prays to God on your behalf. We all have one.  Someone is fighting for us, someone is in heaven sitting at the right hand of God pleading our case. Interceding on our behalf, repairing our relationship with God.  That someone is Jesus. We have an advocate that died for us, and rose again. We have an advocate that continues to plead our case. How great it is to have an advocate that not only fights for us and intercedes for us in wrong, but He calls us to repentance to right those wrongs. Jesus doesn’t walk away from us in fact He is the one praying for another chance. He is the one that made it possible for us to have another chance.

Sometimes walking through this life all we want is someone to understand, or sometimes all we want is someone to pray for us and help through whatever it is we are going through. I cannot count how many time I have had encounters with people who have said, “If people only knew what I was going through…” There have been so many times in my life when all I wanted was someone to pray for me, because I felt like I couldn’t do it myself. There’s two things I’d like to point out here. Jesus understands. Jesus knows what we are going through, He knows how are and taxing life can be sometimes. He also has faith in His people, He knows that we will get it right. Jesus has more faith in us than we have in ourselves, sometimes we give up on ourselves. We give up trying to do what is right because we continue to fall. But Jesus is picking us up every time and putting us back on our feet. Jesus is in God’s ear advocating for us every second of the day, we are like His cause. He carried a cross to calvary and was nailed to it, so that we can live. He always had us and still has us in His heart. One thing I know for sure is that Jesus will not give up on us.

Second, we have to learn to be advocates for one another. We must learn how to pray for one another, and intercede on someone else’s behalf. Sometimes all someone needs is to be prayed for, not told that they need prayer, but to be prayed for. One thing I know for sure is that the power of prayer can change things, it can make things happen. If we just take the time to pray for that someone who is struggling, pray for that person who is continuously falling into sin. If we just take the time to pray for them, God will work a miracle in them that we never saw coming. We live in the generation of tweeting out prayers, #PrayFor… or sending out a tweet to someone in need and saying “you are in my prayers”. We get these tags trending but how many of us are actually praying how many of us are taking the time to pray for our brothers and sisters. I can tell you right now that I can do more and I am going to do more. The point that I want to make here is that 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. That’s how this “love your neighbor as yourself” thing works. It’s what Jesus would do.

All this to say, we have an advocate in Jesus, and we have to be an advocate for someone else.

Reflection

1. Have you ever had an experience where you knew that Jesus was up there in heaven interceding for you?
2. How many times have you been an advocate for someone else?
3. What more can you do to love your neighbor as yourself?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Take the time to thank Jesus that He is an advocate for us all. Take the time to pray for someone, if there is someone you need to pray for do so, and if you feel led to reach out and pray with them do that as well.

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 331!

Day 300: Faith is Active

James 2:17

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James:2:20-23

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

Yesterday we talked about faith, in the aspect that we must believe. We must believe in order to be saved. Today we are going to take that a step further and start acting on that faith. Faith when it comes to following Christ is an action word, yes we must first believe and confess then we must walk with Christ, all the days of our lives. We must have faith in who He is, and trust Him with our lives. We must put all of our faith in Him, knowing that He will do all that He said He was going to do in our lives. This looks like obeying His word, living by His word, and listening when He tells us to go. One of the prime examples of this is Abraham. We all know the story of Abraham and Sarah who had a child way past childbearing age. They were old, very old. But God promised that they would have a son, and they stood on that promise. We see parts of the story when they decided to do it their way but it didn’t work. See the thing about having faith in God is that we cannot decide to do things our way when we decide God is taking too long. We must stand on His promise even when it looks like it’s not coming through, trust me He will always come through. The only way life will work is God’s way, and the more we pour ourselves into Him the more evident that truth becomes. Abraham had a child but it was not the the promised child, the child God had promised was to come from Abraham and Sarah not Abraham and Hagar.

The turning point in this story is when Abraham and Sarah finally had  Isaac (the promised son), God tells Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice. Without hesitation Abraham goes to do it. Now many may think, why would Abraham voluntarily kill his son? The simple answer is because God told Him to, as gruesome as it sounds. I think Abraham knew something that we take a while to grasp and understand. He knew that whatever God was doing it was so much greater than what He could ever imagine. Abraham knew that God gave Him Isaac and if God wanted Him back then He would have to send Him. Sometimes God’s plan doesn’t make sense to us, but it is some much greater than what we could ever think. I cannot say that Abraham was happy-go-lucky to do this. It does not say how he felt about this, but I can imagine that he was a bit troubled. The thing is, Abraham had faith in God’s plan whatever it may have been. “But what about the promise, he waited so long to have this child and then he’s just going to give him up that easy.” It poses the question, do we have faith in His promises or faith in Him? Are we putting our faith in the things that God says He’s going to do, are we putting our trust in His promises or are we putting our faith and trust in Him? I believe that Abraham’s faith was in God, not in the promise of a child because even when the promise was fulfilled He was willing to give it up because His faith in God was stronger. Abraham’s faith was more than words it was active, that’s the type of faith God calling us to have.

Reflection/Prayer Time

There’s a two part question we must ask ourselves, one being do we really have faith in God, do we trust Him with everything? The second question being are we trusting in the promise, or are we trusting in a God who makes and fulfills promises? Allow your answers to those questions guide your prayer, talk to God about it. Have a conversation with Him about your faith, ask Him to search your heart and teach you to have faith in 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 301!

Day 286: Living Well Series (Part 2) - Winning At Life

1 John 5:12

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God's Son does not have life.

Are you winning at life?

What does winning at life look like to you?

I’m sure we have all heard these concepts of “winning at life”. Buzzfeed had probably posted articles about how to win at life, buzzfeed also probably posted a quiz, that most of us probably took, about how to know if you are winning at life. When we think about this idea of winning at life, do we think of it as just something tangible. Are we thinking about winning at life as beating our enemies, or just being better than everyone else? How does it look to win at life? What doe sit mean? First let’s define that word, to win. What does it mean, according to my dictioanry.com app on my iphone, there are quite a few different meaning of the word. All the definitions are centered around success: to finish first, to succeed by striving or effort, to gain the victory, overcome an adversary. The slang definition is to be successful or competent and be acknowledged for it. These definitions are sometimes how we as people define ourselves. We always have to be first, we have to be the best. We have to prove that we are the best and the winners by constantly working hard. The last one hits close to home, we all want to be recognized for our success. We want to be acknowledged for winning at life. Often times we put up an image, most times on instagram, to make our lives look successful, and they might be. But how successful are we if we do not have Jesus? Are we really winning if we do not have Christ in our lives?

I can tell you right now that winning at life does not look a certain way as a matter of fact it lives a certain way. How we live determines how we win. What I mean is that we cannot win at life if we are not living in Christ. The very man who gave us life, how can we live apart from Him. To take that even further how can we win at life if we do not live in Him. It took Jesus to come from His throne in heaven to not only teach us how to live, but also it took His life so that we can have life. Before Jesus came we were dying in our sin, we were losing this game of life. Jesus gave us the tools we needed to win. Theres is only one way to win at life and His name is Jesus.  John 14:16 says. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

The idea of winning at life is the idea of pushing hard to earn it, but with Jesus we didn’t earn it, He gave it to us. All we have to do is believe, all we have to do is give our hearts to Him. True winning is when we are truly submitted to christ, that’s how we win at life. We give our hearts to the man who gave up everything for us. Winning at life is still having life in eternity when everything of this world fades. When all else is gone and we still have Christ to hold on to, that’s how we know we’ve won at life.  See as long as we have Christ we are winning, if we define winning at life by how successful we are, we will never truly be winning. Because we are not always going to be or feel successful.

All this to say, winning at life is declaring our victory in christ, not in the world. Jesus gave us the tools we need to win at life, and we cannot live apart from Him.

Reflection

1. Are You winning at life?

Prayer Time

Take the time to talk to God about what we discussed today. Have a conversation with Him about what it looks like to win at life. Thank Him for Jesus, take the time to thank God for giving us a savior who has given us eternal life.

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 287!

Day 285: Living Well (Series, Part 1)

James 3:13-18

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the other's throats. Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Today marks the start of a new series. Throughout this series we are going to explore this idea of ‘living well’ and what it truly means to live well and win at life.

As Christians many of us reference our faith as a lifestyle as opposed to a religion, or organized religion however you put it. The honest truth is that our faith shows a lot in the lifestyle we live, everything from loving our neighbors to making the right decisions. I wholeheartedly believe that being a Christian is so much more than just going to church every sunday and raising our hands every now and then during worship. It is how we live when we are not at church. It’s the lifestyle we talk about leading. It’s about loving our neighbor and being patient. Living well is more than just looking good or getting by. It’s about much more than surviving. We can look good on the outside, but how is our heart, how is our soul? We can talk about living well but are we actually living good, or do our lives just look from the outside? Living well is not about what we have or how successful we are, it is about our relationship with God. If we do not have a relationship with God, a solid foundation in Him; if we have not found our identity in Christ are we really living well. We cannot live well, or have a good life outside of Christ. For many who are not Christian that is a bold statement for me to make, but we as Christians know what it was like to try to live outside of Christ.

As Christians we must be committed to living a life that pleases God, we must be committed to our lives changing to fit His word and who He is. Not the other way around. His word impacts our lives and we begin to live according to what is written in that bible. The bible does not change to fit us. When our lives line up with the bible that’s how we know we are living well.

All this to say, is that Jesus is the way. If we want to win at life, we have to walk like Christ. Living well has such a deeper meaning than what we are taught by society. Life is beautiful and we are going to explore that throughout this series.  

Reflection

1. Based on your own definition, what is good living?
2. Are you living well?
3. What do you think or believe God’s definition of living well is?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers the above questions guide your prayer today. Have a conversation with God about what we discussed today, and talk to Him 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 Day 286!

Day 282: This Temporary World

1 Timothy 6:6-8

Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.  After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.  Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.  By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.

It is a beautiful revelation to understand that this physical world is fleeting and temporary, and putting our trust in it is useless. It’s great to come to the understanding that we brought nothing into this world so we can take nothing with us. Sometimes I just have to sit and remind myself that although there are many things I want out of this life, I will only put my faith and trust in God. I sit back and look at all the things I have from the clothes in my closet to the money in my bank, and I realize that one day i will be gone and the money I made will stay here, the clothes, the iphones, everything will stay and my soul will depart to be with the Lord. So I’ve learned to invest more into my soul. I’ve learned to be content with what I have and live with God. Now I am not saying that it is a sin to want to make money, or like to look good, what I’m saying is, do not be defined by what is in your bank account, or what type of clothes you wear. I say this because we are living in a generation that is consumed by image, money, and status. Everywhere I look someone is talking about how their only goal is to get up and get money. There is so much more to life than just making money. We can make all the money in the world, but at the end of the day if our soul is not saved how do we sleep in peace? If our soul is not saved does any of it matter?

Mark 8:35-37

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.  And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

We’ve all heard the saying that money doesn’t buy happiness, and I believe it can. But it cannot buy joy, that only comes from God. It cannot buy salvation, the clothes will make us look good but it will not keep us content. These are only things that we can find in Christ.

I grew up very spoiled, I had everything I wanted. I had over a hundred pairs of shoes in my closet, my drawers and closet was bursting with clothes. I grew up rarely hearing the word “no” when it came to getting what I wanted. Although my mother taught us to never find our identity in what we have and always be generous to others. We were made to get together toys and clothes we no longer used and give them to kids less fortunate than us. However I still developed the arrogance that came from all the things I had, I found my identity in what I had. The latest Jordans, or the most expensive bags. That was until I lost it all and realized that my identity is in Christ alone. Even without the riches and the clothes and things, I still had Christ. I had to come to the complete understanding that this world is fleeting, everything is temporary and when it’s all gone, who am I?

-Dyamond

All this to say what will it profit us to everything if we do not have Christ? We cannot walk through life very long trying to fulfill ourselves off of worldly possession and tangible things. Now I’m not saying that we are to walk around denying ourselves the joys of the world. What I’m saying is, do not be defined or identified by the joys of this world but let your identity be in Christ.

Reflection/Prayer Time

1. If you lost everything, who are you?
2. Where is your identity found?
3. Really think about these questions and search yourself before answering them. Do not be afraid or shy away from whatever you find but rather turn to God in prayer. Allow these questions to guide your prayer.

I love you and I hope you have a magnificent day! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 283!