Day 299: It Takes Faith

One of the most important aspects of being a Christian is faith, if we do not have faith how can we serve God. How can we believe in a God we have never seen without faith. Faith is a key ingredient to having a relationship with God. We must believe in Him.

Romans 10:9-10 says, 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.

When many people refer to Christianity, they refer to it as ‘the Christian faith’ or we even talk about it as our faith. I do not believe that that is without reason. Following God take faith, it takes us believing first in God, and His word, and standing on His promises. Faith is choosing to believe in the things that are not seen. But if we want to get technical let’s get a dictionary definition.

Faith: confidence or trust in a person or thing.

Belief that is not based on proof

The trust in God and His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

As Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. That being said our faith is our proof of the living God, and God’s faithfulness to us is proof that we are not crazy people out here believing in a spirit that we don’t know is real. No we believe in a living God, the same God who created the heavens and the earth, the same God who spoke to Moses on a mountain top, we believe in the God who made it rain manna, the God split the red sea, the God who sent His son to die for our sins so that we can have a relationship with Him. That’s the God that we believe in, because we choose to believe. Out faith is not based on proof it is based on the goodness of God. The proof is all around, one thing that blows my mind is that God created the earth the way it is on purpose. According to science (which God created as well), Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life. If Earth was smaller an atmosphere would be impossible, like Mercury. If earth we larger it’s atmosphere would contain free hydrogen like Jupiter, making it impossible to live on in both cases. Also if earth were further away from the sun we would freeze to death, if it we closer to the sun we would burn up. God placed us exactly where He wanted us to be and made us the right size. Aside from the scientific facts, our most powerful tool in our relationship with God is faith. Faith enables us to pray, it enables us to trust in His word, faith allows us to have that relationship with God.

Our faith is based on the signs and wonders, the miracles that we have seen in our lives. The moments where there was no other answer but, “there is a God”. This is what we know to be true, and if we want to take it further, science proves His existence. What I’m saying is, as Christians we live a life that is based on faith. #FaithBasedLiving We put our trust and confidence in God because time and time again He has shown us His faithfulness. I know we have all had moments in our lives where things didn’t go as planned they actually went better. We’ve all had those jaw-dropping moments that left us speechless, and eluding to the fact that God did it. What I’m saying here is if  we are going to serve God we must have faith. Without faith we can do nothing. If we do not believe in a true and living God how are we going to expect Him to do something in our lives. Better yet how can we expect to have a relationship with God if we do not have faith in Him. We talk about faith a lot, but we’ve never talked about it in this context. The basics of Christianity is faith. We start a relationship with God by declaring that we believe. Faith is what bridges the gap between man and God.

Often times I am asked, “What do I have to do to become a Christian?” The simple answer is have faith. Have faith that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that He was resurrected three days later. Not just saying these things but believing them in our hearts. We must have a heart full of faith in God, it’s what allows us to draw closer to Him, it allows us to have a relationship with Him. Faith allows us to persevere.  It is everything we need in order to serve God.

All this to say, faith is the answer. It is the foundation of our lives as Christians, it all starts because we choose to believe in the living God and we make that decision daily.  

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Have a conversation with God about faith, and thank Him that He is so faithful and wonderful.

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 300!!!

Day 281: God's Grace and Forgiveness

Ephesians 1:7

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

Daniel 9:9

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;

Hebrews 10:17

Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

Acts 3:19

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

1 John 1:19

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

You can obviously see a pattern in the scriptures we are talking about today. We are going to discuss God’s grace and forgiveness and how sometime we abuse this. Have you ever continued to do something that you knew was wrong but you kept doing it because you wouldn’t be held accountable for it? Or have you ever kept doing something to someone because you knew they would forgive you over and over again? We may not have done it to the people in our everyday lives but how many times have we done this to God. How many times have we interpreted God’s grace and forgiveness to mean that we can sin and live however we want because God will forgive us anyway? Grace is not a sin for all gift card. We do not get to live any kind of way just because we know God will forgive and that His love will cover our sin. The thing about having a relationship with God is that once we give our hearts to Him, we will do away with all the things that kept us separated from Him in the past. That is when we grow in our faith, and in our relationship with Him. If we are constantly sinning just because we know He will forgive us, it’s like constantly cheating on a spouse because we know they will not leave us. What I’m saying is, just because we know we will be forgiven doesn’t mean we have to hurt the people we say we love. We do this to God too often, we take a chance and disobey Him, because we know that at the end of the day all we have to do is pray for forgiveness and we will have it, because God loves us that much. But can we love Him enough to not sin? Can we love Him enough not to just use Him as a grace card that we can swipe when we need our conscious cleared?

When we think about it, when we live like this are we really committed to God. When we are willing to give up a relationship just for pleasure that will only last a minute, are we really in a relationship with Him? Did we ever really love Him? Last time I checked leaving or hurting someone you love isn’t easy. When we have a relationship with someone that we truly love, we will fight for it. We’re not going to give it up that easy, we won’t cheat on someone we truly love because we take everything into consideration. How bad we will hurt this person, what it may mean for the relationship. Why do we not do the same thing for God, why are we only in a relationship with Him to secure our spots in heaven, go to church on Sundays, and live however we please the rest of the week?

All this to say, if we are going to commit ourselves and our lives to God we have to really commit. We have to be devoted in this relationship to Him. God is loving and graceful, and will love us forever no matter what we don. However, let’s value our relationship with Him enough so that we will want to live our lives with Him, and devote our hearts to Him. Not take it back whenever we decide that we want to sin and give it back when we want our conscious cleared. When we know better we do better. Not knowing or being ignorant is no longer an excuse when we encounter God and give our lives to Him.

Response/Prayer Time

Respond in whatever way you feel led. Allow that response to guide your prayer. Examine yourself and see if you have been taking God’s love and grace for granted. Then talk to Him, confess, ask for forgiveness, and allow Him to change your heart and influence your 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 282!

Day 273: Recap!

Day 267: Exposing Darkness

Today we talked about shining a light on the dark places in our lives and exposing them for what they are. We talked about how, although we try, there is nothing we can hide from God, He sees all. We talked about how in order to be fully devoted to Christ we have to walk in light and that means getting rid of all things dark in our lives. We focused on Ephesians 5:11-14.

"...walk in light and when I say walk in light I mean walk in Christ."

Day 268: He Humbled Himself

Today we talked about taking a big dose of humility! We talked about how Jesus humbled Himself when He gave up a throne in heaven in order to come to earth and save us from our sin. We talked about how we are seeking honor from man and not God, how we are seeking honor from God without a relationship, and also how we just want to be honored and glorified. We focused on Philippians 2:6-9.

"If we do not humble ourselves before Christ we cannot grow. How are we going to survive if we cannot grow in Christ?"

Day 269: All Loss for One Gain

This one was probably my fave of the week. We talked about how sometimes we have to lose everything to gain one thing, Christ. We talked about how Paul said he would count it all as lost if only to gain Christ. Christ is everything we need and if losing everything gets us there then we will have gained everything! We focused on Philippians 3:7-8.

"I can live without these worldly possessions, tangible, and even sometimes intangible things that make up my life here on Earth, but I cannot live without Christ."

Day 270: Why Worry?

Today we talked about worry and stress and anxiety. We talked about how even though we have a million things to we can think of to worry and stress about, when we think of who God is we really have nothing to worry about. God has it already figured out so we just have to trust His plan, go with it, and see what happens. We focused on Philippians 4:6-7 and Matthew 11:28.

"We see the beauty of life when we begin to understand that God is completely in control. He has it all figured out and He’s guided us through it all. There’s comfort and peace in that.  We may not know or understand what God is doing in that moment, but there is beauty in it all, even in the unknown."

Day 271: All You Know

Today we talked about God's everlasting and unchanging love! We talked about how even though He knows everything there is to know about us, everything we've ever done; the good, the bad, and the definite ugly, He still loves us. His feelings towards us never changes. We focused on 1 John 3:20, Psalms 139: 1-6, Hebrews 13:8, 2 Timothy 2:13, and Romans 8:38.

"In the midst of everything we do in our lives, and every place we’ve been; from the highest moments to the lowest, His love never changes. His love stays the same."

Day 272: Chains of Freedom

Today we talked about how we are constantly running to the very things that keep us in chains, even though we have been freed in Christ. We talked about how we tend to hold on to the very things that are killing us as if it were going to save us. Comfort can do that to us. We focused on Ephesians 2:8-9, 4:22-24, Romans 7:15-17, and Romans 6:23.

"... don’t be so afraid of change that you die never knowing the freedom you could have had in Christ."

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening, be sure to share this with someone. Go back over your favorite discussion from this week and come back tomorrow for Day 274!

Day 259: Know It All?

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.  Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.  But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

Knowledge is one thing, it makes us feel important and smart. However it is not everything. Knowledge does not take the place of love. I love this scripture because it points out the fact that we sometimes think we know it all. We sometimes think that having knowledge of who God is and the word of God takes the place of having an actual relationship with Him. We use our knowledge of the word to make ourselves superior to others.

For example, I’ve talked to many atheists who have read the bible back and forth, some of them even went to seminary or have degrees in theology. Yet they do not know the love of God. I have had people try to use their knowledge of God’s word to try to convince me that He isn’t real. Crazy right? I would always end up saying, you know so much, but you know nothing at all. Meaning they were very smart and versed in all things theology, but the love of God cannot be found in theology books. They read the bible not as spiritual food but as a way to enhance their own intelligence.

I can quote a scripture from remembrance, and tell you where to go in the bible for certain things. I can give you assurance that I know what I’m talking about, I went to theology school, I’ve read the books passed the classes. I can tell the Hebrew meanings of things, but at the end of the day, does it really matter if I cannot tell you about my relationship with God. Does it matter if I cannot tell you about the love of God and how His word is like a love letter to us, His children? Does it really matter how intelligent I am and well versed I am in the bible if it has taken no root in me? It doesn’t  love is much more powerful than my knowledge. My knowledge can only go so far. I can read as many theology books, attend a million conferences, get a Phd in theology but if I don’t have a relationship with God I have nothing. If I am not walking and living in love what am I doing? I don’t think God cares if I can quote a thousand scriptures off the top of my head (I’ can’t) if I am not living by what it says.

I think sometimes we get caught up in the aspect of wanting to know everything about God. Wanting to know the history of the bible, and definitions. We want to know more, but if that want or desire for knowledge is driven by the need to feel and look important it’s useless. There are things to know about God that cannot be found in a book. There are things we can only understand through the Word of God, revelations given to us directly through and by Him. We grow in our faith because we are drawn closer to the Lord everyday that we wake up, we pray because it is how we communicate with our heavenly Father, it is how we keep the relationship going. Having a relationship with God is built on more than just knowledge, it’s built on love, and through this love we find strength. It’s like saying that a relationship is more than just sex, or physical stuff. There are layers to the person we are in a relationship with, and the more we know about them the more we fall in love with them. I mean eventually if we are in a relationship with someone just for the physical stuff it’ll burn out pretty quick. What I’m saying is, we can have all the knowledge in the world but we’ll always want more. Living our lives or basing our relationship with God solely upon what we know will burn out eventually. We will always want more, we will never be satisfied with what God has given us, because that desire to want more knowledge is constantly burning within us.

All this to say, we don’t know it all and that’s actually more than okay. It’s good. In our lack of knowledge we find that we draw closer to god because we want to know Him. Not because we want to boast about how much we know about Him. Knowing God and knowing of God are two completely different things.

Response/Prayer Time

Respond in whatever way you feel led. Whatever spoke to you most about today respond to that and then pray about it. Have an honest conversation with God. Allow him to search your heart and check your motives.

I love you and Hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 260!

Day 167: But What You Didn't Know

Acts 3:17-18

And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled

Ignorance: Lack of knowledge

You ever think something is going one way and it turns out it was going another way all along. You ever realize after the fact that God was planning something, or that everything that had taken place was a part of God’s plan. A lot of times these things don’t look like or seem like they are part of God’s plan because it doesn’t seem like God will allow things like this to happen. I’m a firm believer that God will use bad things in our life to show us how good He is. When we don’t understand what God is doing or how His plan is being fulfilled in our life, we just keep going, don’t let go because sooner than later everything will be revealed. There’s a great picture that He’s painting and we’ll have to endure some things we don’t quite understand before we can see it in its fulness.  

I think that this is what many of the people were experiencing when they were taunting Jesus and mocking Him and crucifying Him. What was going on was so unorthodox that they couldn’t handle it. How could God send a mere man to save humanity, What Jesus was doing, was not what people were used to seeing in that time. In their eyes Jesus was a rebel. What they didn’t know was that this man was fully God and fully man. They thought they were doing something by crucifying Jesus. They thought they were right when He didn’t come down off the cross, but what they didn’t know was that everything, including what they were doing was part of God’s plan. It was not until after He died that they realized that Jesus was the true Messiah all along. It wasn’t until He was resurrected that people started to truly believe that He was who He said He was. As everything that the prophets had foretold had come to pass. Everything that Jesus told them had proven to be true.

Sometimes we don’t always see what God is doing until it’s all over. The craziest thing is when we finally see the bigger picture and we start to piece together the pieces of our lives that played a role in where we are today, it’s mindblowing and amazing, because we will start to understand not only how good God is, but also that He has His hand on us every second of our lives. He never lets go and He never leaves. We realize that God’s plan will always be fulfilled in our lives, even when we think it’s not part of His plan, trust me, it is.

Reflection

1. Are there areas in your life where you think, “This cannot be part of God’s plan”?
2. What are they?
3. HAve you ever had a moment of revelation where you realize that God’s hand was on you all along? If so, what was it like?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about His plan in your life and submit to whatever that is.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone, hit that follow button and come back tomorrow for Day 168!

Day 70: God Knows Better

If someone were to ask me to list the many reasons why I am a christian, somewhere along that line I would say, “God knows better than me”. I find comfort in serving a God who is definite. He knows far more about this life, about this world, and even about me than I will ever know. I’m smart but I have the brain of a fruit fly compared to Him. God has given us knowledge and the ability to learn but we will never know more than Him. He is omniscient, all knowing, omnipresent, He is everywhere at one time. There isn’t a thing He does not see or know. There is no one like Him.

Revelation 22:13

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Isaiah 46:9-10

9 I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

God knows everything there is to know about everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. We are talking about the man that created the universe, He created life, He created biology, chemistry, sciences. The organs in our body, every nerve, and cell was created by Him. This is the God we serve.

He knew from the moment He created us how our lives were going to turn out, That’s someone I can have faith in, He holds the future in His hands, He’s already planned it, and day by day He is leading us to the place He has for us. He’s planned out even the smallest moments in our lives. He knew the exact moment we would meet our best friends. He knows the exact moment we will meet the person we will spend the rest of our lives with. He knows when that phone call we’ve been waiting for will come through. He knows everything.

God knows what’s going to happen, even when we don’t. He sees the bigger picture because He painted it. We just have to trust in His sight, and His vision so that even when we don’t know what to do even when our plans hit a wall we can know that whatever God has planned is better than anything we could have dreamed up ourselves. We must accept the fact the no matter how smart we are, what we know does not compare to the knowledge of God.  Overtime as we look back over our lives we will see that God’s hand was in it all along. We will understand that He had to take us some places we weren't planning on going to get us to where we are. But overall God always knew where we would end up, because He is God. His ways are better than ours, His thoughts are greater than ours. His plans outshine ours.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Just know that as long as we trust God, as long as we are in His will, we are part of a grand picture that was completed before we were even born.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

Take the time to think about how amazing it is that God knows better than us. To think about how great He is, and how He already knows what will happen in our lives. Let it sink in that we are part of God’s bigger picture. Just talk to Him about it all. However you feel led to pray today, do it.