Day 236: God is Building Us

1 Peter 2:2-5

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Today I want to talk about growing in God, and how as we draw closer to Him we grow more in every area of our lives. Our faith grows more, our knowledge of who He is and His word grow. Our passion for Him grows. Every area of our life is enhanced. The more we grow in the Lord the more we become like Christ. We become better people overall. I love the analogy of a baby longing for milk. A baby craves it’s mother’s milk, because it has all the nutrients needed to help the baby grow into a child. The milk of the mother is bringing life to the child. In the same way, when we give our lives to Christ we are like newborn babies, and we crave that spiritual milk from Him so that we may grow in our faith. The scriptures tells us to long for the pure spiritual milk. The milk that causes us to grow up in our salvation. What if that milk is the blood of Jesus, the word of God, the Holy Spirit, everything that points us to a life of salvation and eternity. That’s the secret right there, if we want to grow in our faith, if we want to continue to grow and not stay stagnate, we must long for the word of God, and allow that word to take root in us so that ours lives begin to change to look like Christ’s. We must long to follow the only living God. We must seek His face, and through His word God will build us into the men and women of God He has always planned for us to be. Through our prayer, and longing for Him, He will build us up.

Like a baby it takes time, many times, things don’t happen overnight. We have to go through some things. We have to be cleansed. We have to let go of a few things and people in our lives before we can grow. We have to be rejected like Jesus. But when alls said and done we will  realize what god was doing all along. Sometimes we don’t understand why He’s doing certain things in our lives, we don’t understand why things are going the way they are. We don’t understand what’s going on at that moment in time. But just hold on, keep longing for that pure spiritual milk, keep going and keep growing and when it’s all said and done, we will realize that He was building us. He was shaping us and moulding us. In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says, “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God always knows the plan, even when we don’t understand it. He is constantly building us up, and making us into the vessels that He will use to bring glory to Him and His kingdom. We must learn to accept that sometimes, we aren’t going to get what God is doing until He is done. We won’t have answers until He reveals them to us, But in the meantime, we must continue to trust Him and seek His face. We must continue to seek that pure spiritual milk that He speaks of in order for us to grow. We can grow in the moments of uncertainty as well. It’s in those moments when we learn to trust God and have faith.

All this to say, if we want to grow in Christ, if we want to grow in our faith we must push towards Him and draw near to Him. We must lean on His word and lean towards Him.

Reflection

1. What is something that stood out to you today?
2. Are there times in your life when you don’t understand what God is doing?
3. If those times have passed can you look back and see how He was using your situation then to make you who you are now?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about spiritual growth and whatever it is on your heart today. Have a conversation with 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 237!

Day 234:What About Us?

Luke 6:42

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye…

We’ve talked about this scripture multiple times, but today I want to speak on it from a semi-different perspective than usual. Today I want to talk about us, we are so concerned with everyone else and their life but what about us? We sometimes forget that preaching and teaching the word of God isn’t the same as living it out.  We are so focused on leaving our footprint on the world that we forget to not only see ourselves but also what’s right in front of us. We’re focused on changing the world when we haven’t changed ourselves. It’s like giving directions, if we have never been to the place how can we show someone how to get there? If we don’t know if it’s a left turn or a right turn, how can we give accurate directions? It’s the same when we are serving Christ, for some reason people seem to believe that they can tell someone else how to live when they are nowhere near close to getting it right. We as humans so often point out the mistakes in others while forgetting that we ourselves are walking on a fine line. We have some skeletons in our closet that will soon start falling out if we’re not careful. We must learn to check ourselves before we try to check anyone else, or we’ll end up falling while trying to break someone else’s fall. Meaning, if we are not secure in Christ we cannot teach someone else to have a solid foundation in Him, because we aren’t stable ourselves. Going a little further, what about our souls?

We often forget to check in with ourselves because we are focused on the souls of those who have not yet given their lives to Christ. However, sometimes we have to stop and check ourselves. Sometimes we have to take the time to heal our own souls. We have to take care of ourselves or we are no use to anyone else. While we are preaching about how important it is to have a relationship with God, grow, and feed our soul we have to make sure that in the meantime our soul isn’t starving . Our praying for others, and preaching, and our good deeds do not take the place of us spending time with God. It does not take the place of spending time in His word, and praying. Don’t allow yourself to be weakened because you are spending all of your time strengthening others. We must practice what we preach on every level, not just when it comes to preaching about or against sin.  

All this to say, if you’re going to tell someone how to live you better make sure you have yourself together first. Take care of your soul before you take care of someone else’s. We can’t talk to anyone else about their relationship with God when ours is either non-existent, complicated or on the rocks. We must make sure that we are living a life that is holy and acceptable to God so that we won’t just be talking about it, but we will be an example to those searching and lost. Our words can only go so far, our actions, our love, and how we live speak much louder.

Reflection

1. Do you feel that as a Christian you spend more time teaching others how to live as opposed to actually living what you preach?
2. Is your soul healthy?
3. How’s your relationship with God?

Prayer

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about whatever you feel led to speak with Him about today. Have an honest conversation with God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 235!

Day 111: The God-Shaped Hole in Our Hearts

A while ago, someone told me that we all have a God-shaped  hole in our hearts and until it is filled with God we will forever be searching for a permanent fulfillment that we can only find in Christ. They said that, we can try to fill this hole with a number of other things and we do, but they will only provide temporary fulfillment. There is a constant hunger within us, and until we turn to Christ it will never be satisfied. A lot of times we need God without knowing it, once we come to Christ we truly understand just how much we need Him. We cannot survive without Him.

Isaiah 45;18

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), "I am the LORD, and there is none else.

As I stated above, there is a hunger in all of us that can only be satisfied by God. And as the last part of the scripture above states, “I am the Lord, and there is no one else”. There is no one else that can give us what God has given us. So often we walk around hollow, empty, because we are searching for something. We are looking for satisfaction, or purpose, and we find ourselves lost  because we’ve looked everywhere and nothing seems to be the right fit. Nothing seems to rub us the right way, or scratch that itch. We are looking past or even turning away from the only person able to fulfill, or quench that thirst. Until we turn to Christ, until we give our lives to Him, we will forever fight the emptiness within us. God is the one person that can give instruction when there seems no way, hope when it seems all is lost, strength when we are weak. Only God can do that, there is no one else. There is no amount of drinks we can have to fill the voids, no relationship with any person, no drug, no amount of sex, no amount of money, no matter how many jobs we work or how successful we are. If we don’t have God there will always be a sort of emptiness in us. When all's said and done, when we are at our lowest or if we were to lose everything we have, we can still live in the hope of Jesus Christ. He can sustain us in the worst of times. He provides what no one or nothing cannot, eternity. He gives us eternal life, eternal joy, and peace. Somehow when we are going through hell on earth we can still find an ounce of peace, or joy. Because God inhabits our hearts. He has filled us with His Holy Spirit, and everyday we walk with Christ knowing that we are covered from the inside out. The Holy Spirit is with us and guides us throughout our days, giving us peace and joy and fighting off the things that are unlike God. When Jesus ascended into heaven God didn’t just leave us alone to fend for ourselves, He sent His spirit. So that no matter where we are or what we are going through He is there with us.

Genesis 2:7

then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

There is no way that we can live without God, He literally blew life into our nostrils. We live because He decided to give us His breath. We cannot live apart from Him. There will always be a need for Him. No matter how far we try to run from God or how lost we feel we will always be connected to Him, even if just by a breath. We know that we are in need of God if we just stop and breathe, and refer back to His word that tells us that He blew the breath of life into our nostrils. It is like an artist and it’s work, the creation will always be connected to the creator. The creation does not exist or live with the creator or artist.  However, the creator exists without the creation. We are God’s creation, we do not exist without him. Without his hand we have no form, without His breath we have no life. We cannot live apart from Him, we can try and we will see how much of a mistake it is to think that something like that could happen.

All this to say, is that we are in constant need of our LOrd and Savior. We have that hole in us that only God can fill. It’s His breath that fills our lungs, His Holy Spirit that carries us through every day of our lives. There is nothing and no one that can fill these voids, there is no one else but God. No one else can fit into that hole but Him.

Reflection

1. Do you or have you ever felt empty/hollow?
2. Have you tried or are you trying to find satisfaction in something or someone other than God?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Maybe you are walking around empty or feeling lost, take that heart and give it to God today. Know that everything you need is in Him. Talk to God, pour your heart out to Him even if that means just crying out to Him. Maybe you know someone who is going through this, lift them up in prayer today, ask God to touch their heart, and if you feel lead to, pray with them.

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 112!