My faith has been a constant source of strength, peace, and love in my life. Being a Christian is not an easy walk, we are not in anyway perfect but together we can help each other become more respectful people and help others see how amazing God is by showing others the love and forgiveness he shows us
God can change anyone. No matter what. Christians tend to carry this feeling of superiority, but we shouldn’t believe we are better than someone else. We shouldn’t discredit someone especially when they turn to Christ because of their past sins. Reading the stories about Jesus you will realize that he always spent time with people that others didn’t think they were deserving of God’s mercy. He spent time in the church yes, but most of his time was spent teaching gentiles, the crowds, the poor, the so called outcasts by society. He wasn’t out there only with people who were perfect like Him. For example Matthew, one of his disciples, was a tax collector which was deemed as wrong by people, yet Jesus made him one of His disciples. No one is too damaged for God.
- John 1:42 Jesus didn’t himself go out and recruit all his disciples. Some were brought on by the others. Like Philip went to call on Nathanael like yo bro come check this out. And then once Nathanael was there, Jesus showed him who He was and Nathanael believed. All to say that we are supposed to spread the word and deeds of God, not just keep it to ourselves and not share. Part of being God’s follower is sharing Him with people. But I also think it’s important to note that we cannot change people. That’s up to God. Many get upset when our friends & co. don’t fully commit to God as we would like and take that personally. But that’s not up to us. It’s between them and God. God will do His work of changing that person, in His way. Not the way we want. We should love, support, encourage, help hold accountability, but not dictate, set our own expectations onto others and their journey with God. We should not overestimate our roles in people’s growth or life. We are not doing the changing, God is.
- John 6: if we are looking to please the world, we cannot please God. We should also be more hungry for God and his words, we should be serving others, not dedicating our lives to seek riches for ourselves. Love is the greatest command but that includes loving those are not like us, loving those who are different, loving our enemies. Look within ourselves before we judge others. We not better than any other sinners. We are what we do and what we say, that is reflected from what is in our hearts. Listening to God and following his word is building a solid foundation in our lives so that when hard times come we will not waver for our faith in Him is strong.
“Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” John 13:16 We as Christians should not believe that we are better than others. Our lives should be lived humbly with the purpose of following Christ, loving God and our neighbors and serving others. In John 13 we see Christ washing the feet of his disciples. He the son Of God, the almighty who could have had done anything of us still showed continuous mercy and kindness to his disciples and to all the people he encountered. He dedicated his life to that. And that’s exactly what I want to do, exactly what I know God wants me to do.
The devil is a liar and a deceiver. He lurks when you are experiencing happy times, he tempts with the intention of distancing you from God. The devil tries the hardest when your faith is the strongest. We are human and sometimes we fall for it. We become ashamed of our sins and distance ourselves from God. We think we are unworthy of his love and forgiveness. Our sin is so great, there’s no way He will forgive us. We don’t truly repent and we believe that something we did is greater than anything God is capable of doing. The devil wins. Somewhere somehow because He IS better and greater than anything, God forgives us and shows us back to the light, he accepts us. Though our God is a forgiving and merciful God, he is a just one. In our time away from God, we find ourselves in turmoil internally and externally. We feel lost, unloved, filled with anxiety and fear. We are punished not because of the sin, but how we allowed our sins to take us away from God.
God’s greatest commandment is to love him then to love one another. You can never go wrong by truly loving people. But what does it mean to love? 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what love is and I encourage you to read it. I hope to give out a love like the love I receive from God. •
Recent events have also been showing me that you never know how long you have with someone, so continuously show love to those around you. It easier said, harder to believe and do, even for me…but I want us to make an effort to love others & to know that no matter who we are are loved, even if we may not know so.
Spread the love
My devotion has been teaching me how to praise the Lord. I feel like I usually quickly thank Him and then move to requests when I pray and that’s not how to pray. We have to actually praise the Lord and I realized I didn’t know how to do that in the way He deserves. Using bible verses and the script of praise-thanks-request-thanks the devotional (linked below) has given me a prayer guideline I want to follow more. It says that the more time you spend praising God, the more faith you have and the more peaceful you become, reassured in your faith about the issues you are having. https://my.bible.com/it/reading-plans/12346-start-with-praise-7-empowering-prayers
For a while, I thought romantic love was the only most important or best kind of love. But Matthew 22:37-39 says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself”. Learning this has taken me onto a journey of self love and realization of how important other forms of love are & greater appreciation of the love I have with God, my family and friends.
Matthew 19:26 In times like these when I’m feeling down, that I am not doing anything right & feeling discouraged this verse helps me remember that what may seem impossible to me, is minor compared to his power & grace.
Learning to keep my faith in Him greater than my faith in myself.
Sometimes when things are hard, I start to doubt myself. But I know not to lean solely on my own understanding and strength because I’m not alone. As Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. It’s amazing how confident you become when you know you have the Almighty on your side!
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