Day 333: Walking Away Isn't Easy

1 John 2:19

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reflection

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

Prayer Time

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

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

Day 317: Knowing God For Ourselves

John 14:6

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

How many times have we used someone else’s faith as a crutch so that we would not have to submit our lives fully to God? What I’m asking is have we ever felt like our faith or our salvation was dependent on someone else? We have pastors, parents, and leaders who will lead us to Christ, but the only way to eternity it through Christ. We must have a personal relationship with God for ourselves. People can lead us to the water but they cannot make us drink. We can be led to Christ all our lives but if we do not make the decision to follow Him ourselves we will remain wight where we are.

The only way to God is through Jesus, the only way to eternity is through Jesus. No one else can

get us there. No one else can make the decision for us.  Many of us grew up in church or going to church, and many of us did not. For those of us who grew up in church or around church or having a common knowledge of the Christian faith, we had to at one point come to the conclusion that knowing about God and knowing God are two completely different things. We must gain a relationship with God for ourselves and that’s something no one else can for us. Our parents can drag us to church all of our lives but we have to make that decision ourselves. We have to come to know God for who He is, we must profess our own faith. We must repent for our own sins. Our parents, our mentors, our pastors, no one can do that for us.

How many times have we depended on the faith of others to get us by? We’ve depended on the prayers of others, and thought just because we go to church that we are okay. We are good because we grew up in the church and we know about God, We know about the bible. We got baptised when we were younger, we take communion and our parents dedicated us. We go to church every sunday, and we listen to a good sermon that will hold us over until next sunday so, we’re good right? No we are not we must come to know God for ourselves, our parents introduce us to our faith, but we make the decision to follow Christ. We make the decision to choose Christ every day of our lives. We make the decision to spend time with God in His word, growing in our faith, learning and knowing more about Him. These are our decisions, if God doesn’t make that decision for us, why do we put it on others to do it for us. Many of us are thriving because someone is praying for us, someone is going to God on our behalf, many say it’s the prayers of our grandmothers, but I know that it’s Jesus standing at the right hand of God interceding for us day in and day out.

What I’m getting at here is, no one can have a relationship with God for us. No one can submit our lives to Christ for us. No one can get on our knees and confess our sins to God and repent. No one can accept Christ into our lives but us. My mom would always tell me, “I can’t stand before God on the day of judgement for you, you stand before Him alone.” That struck me so hard because when I’m standing before God He’s not going to ask about how many times I went to church with my mom or how I had a relationship with Him through someone else. No He wants us all to have a personal relationship with Him. He is concerned with our hearts and how we served Him. We must do it ourselves. We have the power to walk away from a life of sin and dwell with Christ for all of our days.

All this to say, the only way to God is through Christ, not our parents, mentors, pastors, etc. If we really want to know what it is to truly live, we must get to know God for ourselves. We must have a personal relationship with God.

Response/Prayer Time

1. Are you depending on someone else to have a relationship with God for you?
2. Do you think that going to church and listening to a sermon is enough to have a relationship with God?
3. Respond in whatever way you feel led. Take the time to think about what we discussed today and talk to God about.

If you’ve never made the decision to follow Christ and you want to, or if you want to rededicate your life to Him, now is the time to do. Now is the time to make that decision. 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 318!

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 291: Waiting for "The One"

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

In our twenty’s we are coming to the age when we are either in long term relationships, dating, engaged, or married. The topic of relationships comes up a lot. Whether we are talking about the type of person we want to be with, the type of relationship we want, or even thinking about settling down and starting a family. Whatever it may be, I think it is time we have a mature conversation about this subject that seems to be glossed over so much. This is something that has constantly been coming up in my conversations recently. Everyone is looking for that one person we can spend the rest of our lives with, however when we are in Christ we are waiting for that person. We are waiting for whoever it is God has for us, and trust me there’s someone out there that God has chosen specifically for you, and you have been chosen specifically for someone else. God is great, on top of everything He does, He’s also the ultimate matchmaker. It’s great, it’s beautiful. There is so much peace in knowing that we do not have to go out looking for the right person because God already has them picked out, and whoever this person is will be far beyond what we ever expected. However there are a few questions I would like to pose and a few points to make.

Are we seeking a relationship with God more than we are seeking a earthly relationship with someone? We can get so caught up sometimes in wanting to be with someone, liking someone, or just wanting to be in a relationship that we forget about the first relationship we need to be in. In order for us to have a good and stable relationship with anybody else we must have a good and stable relationship with God. Sometimes we are going after people that are no good for us, we are going after people that we are not meant to be with, because we are more focused on them than we are on God. That presents a problem The scripture tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to us. There’s a pattern to life and it always involves keeping God first and then watching everything fall into place. So if we want a relationship if we want that person that God has for us, we cannot look outside of Him. We must be so wrapped up in Christ that our significant other has to find Christ to find us. What I’m saying is, Jesus is our first love and will always be our first love. Before we fall in love with anyone else we must fall in love with Him first.  

Genesis 2:18

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I love the scripture in genesis as it ends with the statement, “I will make him a helper fit for Him.”  Sometimes we settle for people that do not fit us, We settle for people not just because we’re lonely but because they have what we think we want. They have the whole package according to our standards. But what about God’s standards? What about His plan? We must get to a point where we are not willing to sacrifice our faith for pleasure. Where we are so rooted in our faith where we don’t want to be near anything that could jeopardize that. I was recently talking to a friend about what I want from a relationship, and the first thing is they have to love Jesus, I want someone that will love me, but love Jesus so much more, and that’s not something I am willing to sacrifice. No matter how attractive they are, or how many standards they meet, I am not willing to sacrifice my faith for a relationship with someone. I would rather wait and move on God’s timing. He knows the plan, He knows when we are going to meet that person. God knows the exact moment it will happen. But in the meantime, while we wait, let’s work on our relationship with Him. Let’s work on fitting into the will of God before trying to fit someone into our will.

While we wait god is molding and shaping us into the people He has called us to be. He is taking out the things that should be there, and teaching us to walk like Christ. Leading us down this road called life. God has work to do on us before He sends the person He has destined for us to spend the rest of our lives with. He isn’t going to send us into this relationship with baggage, He won’t allow us to ruin what He is putting together.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

One of my favorite things to talk about is love, Not just romantic love, but love in general, because it is so beautiful. Love is so powerful. I just love, love. I think it is the best thing we have. Because God is the best thing we have and God is love. With that being said, we are talking about love in a romantic way today. God teaches us how to love properly, He teaches us how to love people, and ultimately how to love our significant others. The scripture above is a definition of what love is, before we get into a relationship with anyone we must know what love is, we must know how to love. Love requires patience, kindness, forgiveness, it is not conceited, envious, or boastful. When we read the above scripture we see just how beautiful love is. This is the way God wants us to love our partners. The way He has called us to love any and everyone.

All this to say, God has a special someone out there for all of us. Let’s not let our loneliness or want to be in a relationship blind us from what God is doing. Some of us may have to wait longer, but no matter how long the wait is, it will be so worth it.

Reflection

1. Are you waiting for the person God has for you or are you settling for what you want?
2. What is your perfect person? Describe them, ideally what and who would they be?
3. Are you willing to sacrifice your faith to get that person?
4. Are you seeking a relationship with God more than you are seeking a relationship with someone else?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the aboves questions guide your prayer. Have a conversation with God about what we discussed today. Then pray for your future spouse, whoever it is God has for you, pray for that person, even though you don’t know who they are yet. Trust me someone is out there praying for you too.

When you have the chance listen to the song Dear No One by Tori Kelly. It’s a beautiful song about waiting on who God has for 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 292!

Day 290: It's Possible

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

That last statement makes the point I want to make today. Today we are going to continue on the subject of living and take it a bit in a different direction. Have you ever been under the impression that living a Christian lifestyle is hard? Have you ever felt like living a sinless life was impossible? Because we are human and we are going to mess up. However the above scripture is proof that it is possible. We sometimes forget that Jesus was fully human as much as He was fully God. We forget that He was born like the rest of us, He was given free will like the rest of us, He had to grow up from a child like the rest of us. He experienced the same things we did growing up. He had to listen to His mother, it didn’t matter if He was the Messiah or not. He experienced pain, loss, grief, and anger. He cried when Lazarus died, it hurt Him. I say all of this to be reminded that Jesus is human, just like we are. With that being said, He knows what’s it’s like to be tempted. To live in a world full of sin. We read about how satan tempted him in the gospels. We are not serving a God who does not know what we are going through. We are not following someone who sat on a throne and just told us how to live. No we know how to live because He came here to Earth and showed us, He gave us an example not just verbal instructions.

Going through all of this to get to the point of today, He was without sin. He went through all of this, He went through so much, He was tempted and yet He is without sin. That’s someone that we can look up to. That’s someone we can look to as an example on how to live a sinless life. Jesus did it, so can we.

Sometime we lean too much into the idea that we are human and making mistakes is inevitable. We kind of use that as a crutch or something to fall back on when we decide to sin. I cannot tell you how many times I have used that as an excuse to do what I wanted. Countless times I have blamed my sin on my humanity as if I never knew right from wrong. Yes it is very true that we are human and we are going to make mistakes, but that does not mean that we plan those mistakes. It does not mean that we intentionally go against what we know is right just because “we’re human” and “things happen”. Things don’t just keep “happening” especially sin, when we know better we do better. At some point we have to give up the desires of the flesh if we want to live and please God. We cannot keep using the sames excuses to keep doing the same things. God gives us strength in those moments of weakness to escape, He always gives us a way out. There is always another choice, another door to go through, we do not have to fall every time. God is standing right there with us in those moments but He will not make the decision for us. Sometimes we have chosen to be weak because it is easier. We blame it on how weak our flesh is, when we’ve been in a relationship with Christ, at some point our desire to feed and please our flesh will be drowned out by our desire to please God and do His will. We may start off weak, but we most definitely do not stay that way.

All this to say, living a sinless life is possible, but here’s the catch, we cannot do it without Christ. We cannot stand against temptation on our own, every time we’ve tried we’ve failed.  We cannot live a life free of sin away from Christ, it will not work. That was the whole purpose of Him coming to save us in the first place. We obviously cannot live on our own, we need Him.

Reflection

1. Have you ever felt like being a Christian was too hard?
2. If so, what did you find hard about it?
3. Have you ever used, “I’m human” as an excuse to sin when you knew it was wrong?
4. Have you ever found yourself trying to beat temptation without Christ?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Whatever stood out to you today talk to God about it. Maybe He’s leading you to repent or even give you heart to Him if you haven’t.

If that’s you, if you’ve never given your life to Christ, now is the time to make that decision. If you want to walk with Christ and be set free from the bondage of sin and shame say 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  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, congratulations! It’s the best decision you will ever make. Don’t be afraid to reach out and get plugged into a church! Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 291!

Day 283: Faithful God

2 Timothy 2:13

If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

This scripture had me shook when I read it. I brings me to the question when someone asks, “Who is God?” One thing we can say is He is faithful. It’s who He is, cannot be unfaithful. Have you ever met someone that is faithful even when the other person isn’t. He’s faithful even when we aren’t faithful to Him. What?! God is faithful to us even when we are unfaithful to Him. Where else are we going to find this kind of commitment? We are all looking for commitment in relationships, but we’re overlooking the commitment we already have. God is committed to loving His people and that means being faithful. He is committing to sticking to and following through on His word. God is here to stay and He will never leave. This is the type of commitment we are looking for but we are looking for it in the wrong places. We have someone who is going to love us eternally and unconditionally. We have someone that is going to remain faithful no matter what, someone who will never break a promise and always follow through on His word. Why are looking everywhere else to find it? More importantly, why is so hard for us to be faithful to Him?

I know many of us have been in relationships, but how many of us can say we will stay in a relationship with an unfaithful person? I know for a fact that I would not, and that’s why I’m not God, However there are many things I am willing to work through but there’s only so much of being unfaithful that I can take. However God is not the same, He is constantly working through it with us. When we have our moments of being unfaithful, He doesn’t stop being faithful us, instead His love for us remains the same, because that is who He is. God loves us so much that instead of walking away from us, He forgives us, and works through it with us. How amazing is that? That we have someone who will always be there. No matter what, we can always know that God is there for us. That no matter what we can always depend on Him. That’s beautiful! It’s amazing. One of the greatest example of God’s love for us and His want to be in relationship with us is Jesus. He sent His only son to die on a cross so that we may be saved and that we may have a relationship with Him. If that’s not love I don’t know what is.

The last thing I want to say is that God will not send us someone who is unfaithful Sometimes we are looking for someone to be faithful and love us unconditionally but we have not come into the knowledge or understanding of God’s love and faithfulness for us. Before we can fall in love with anyone else we have to fall in love with god. Before we have a relationship with anyone else we must have a relationship with God, because God teaches us how to love as well as be loved. God has someone for all of us, but don’t settle. God has someone that will be faithful to us and love us the way He loves His church. But in the meantime rest in God’s love and faithfulness.

All this to say, God is faithful. He is the most faithful person be will ever be in a relationship with. Let’s focus on being faithful to Him, and committing our lives and heart to Him.

Reflection

1. Have you ever been unfaithful to God?
2. Why do you think it is so hard for us to be committed to God and faithful to Him?
3. How do you feel knowing that someone loves you and will be committed to you forever, despite the things you do or go through?

Prayer Time

Take the time to thank God today, before anything just offer Him a prayer of thanksgiving. Tell Him how much you love and appreciate Him. Then pray in whatever way you feel led. But today I want you to thank God for who He is and what He has done for us.

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 267: All the Time #WasteTheirTime2017

Galatians 4:17-18

Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them. If someone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you.

Have you ever known those people, or even experienced it in a relationship, that are only nice to you when others are around. When they want all of your attention, they don’t want your attention to be taken away from them and put on someone else. It’s like when you’ve dated someone and even though you’re no longer together they don’t want you to be with anyone else. They pretend like they still want to be with you because seeing you with someone else will mean that they are no longer the one who gets most of your attention or affection. It’s a bit crazy when you think about it but it seems like some people are into wasting people’s time. #WasteHerTime2017 #WaseHisTime2017.

I believe that this is what Paul is getting into in this scripture. He’s telling the people that these false teachers only want you to follow them, they only want you to turn away from the truth that I have taught you. They want to turn your attention from me so they can gain followers in their false doctrine and teachings. Paul says two things that I want to point out. He talks about how these false teachers do not have good intentions. They want to win you over but it is not in any way in good heart. They want you for their own gain, not for what they can do for you. What I’m saying is, not everyone who is nice to you is not for you. Not everyone who smiles in your face has your best interest at heart. Sometimes people are using you to elevate themselves. There are people that only want you by thee side because they see your potential to be great and fear that you will be greater than them. It’s sad but it is true. There are many false people walking around pretending and if we are rooted in Christ discerning in the spirit we will fall right into their trap. This is not how God wants us to live, we cannot live in fear of someone else’s potential because the same God that created them and gave them a purpose is the same God that created us and gave us a purpose.

Paul then goes on to say, “If someone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you.” I want to speak to the friendships and relationships with this one. If you have someone in your life that is only good to you around certain people and could care less any other time, it’s time to start cutting people out your life. We all know those people, or maybe we are that person. But we have had experiences where people only want us in their lives not because they truly love us or like us but because they don’t want us to be in someone else’s life. That is not Godly, we are not things to be possessed and disposed of when we’re no longer useless to you. It goes the other way as well, we should not treat people this way. True friends, boyfriends, or girlfriends are there for you all the time, they don’t turn their friendship or relationship on and off. Like Paul says, it’s alright if people want to do good things for you, but let them do it all the time. Let them be the same all the time. Let them do it in private just as in public. Our lives are not a show to entertain people. I feel like we have all been here, whether we have been the person doing this to someone else or it’s been done to us. Sometimes people just want us in their lives to prove something to another person.

All this to say, some people are great at telling and making up stories to get you on their side. We are not put on earth for human gain whether we are here to glorify God and expand His Kingdom, Don’t use someone else’s life for your own personal gain. Don’t be out here wasting people’s time for no reason.  

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond to what we discussed today. Talk to God about what we discussed. Ask Him for the spirit of discernment and ask Him to search your heart and purify it.

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 268!