Monthly Archives: October 2013

Looking For A Gift?

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A gift

Imagine you purchased a great gift for someone simply because you loved them. Or even better, you saw someone in deep financial crisis and you paid off all their debt and bills for them free of charge just because you love them and know there is no way they could ever pay it off on their own. So you do it and you go to them with the good news that you have paid everything off, they are completely free of all their debts and money problems and they are now free to enjoy their life! You even promise that if they ever get into another jam, you have those future money problems covered too! So they can go on and live their life without those burdens weighing on them anymore. You are excited to tell them about what you’ve done because you just know they will be elated and relieved!!
But to your surprise, when you tell them the good news, they respond by saying…”Yeah right!!! I don’t believe that for one bit!!! And even if you did do such a thing, why are you all in my business? Nobody asked for your money, nobody asked for your help! You could have kept that! I can take care of my own problems! I don’t need you and I don’t want your money either!!!”
At that point, I’d imagine every bit of excitement would leave your mind and all you would be left feeling now is anger and deep hurt. You start thinking…”How could they say that?  After all I just did for them…I feel like I just wasted my time and my money!!! Why wouldn’t they appreciate when someone has just done something wonderful for them?”
I bet that’s how God feels when people reject Jesus…
Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice to remove all our debts. And Jesus is our ultimate gift to clear all our sin debt away…past, present, and future. He is a gift God gave us simply because He loved us too much to leave us without any way out. If we don’t accept Him, we reject God’s ultimate gift to us and it’s as if we are saying Jesus died for nothing, and we don’t want what He’s offering anyways. Please don’t make that mistake!!!

He is a GIFT….

JUST RECEIVE HIM BY FAITH!!!!

…the name of the only begotten Son of God is JESUS…

Do It Again

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never-give-up

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. – Galatians 6:9
Pay close attention, because the verse above holds the key to achieving ANY kind of change you want to see in your life.  Because the key to success is CONSISTENCY.
There have been many times in my life where I was so excited to start a new venture that had the prospect of bringing about major changes in my life. For instance, I might decide to start a new weight-loss program or some new business project or plan to read my Bible through in a year. I would be so excited to start and so gung-ho about my new “project” for the first few days. But then after I had been doing it for a few days, if I didn’t see any immediate results from my efforts, I would start to get discouraged and lose sight of the reason I even started it! After that point, sticking to the program would seem harder and harder and eventually I would just quit because this project that I thought was sure to make a big change in my life didn’t really work after all. Have you ever been there?
Well, I’m starting to realize now that the program wasn’t the issue. Because honestly, there are no “magic” formulas when it comes to success in any area of life. Oh yeah, many things are advertised as quick solutions, but in reality, the truly successful have usually done much hard work to get where they are and you just don’t know about their journey because you didn’t know them before they became successful. And this is true whether it’s someone who has a successful career, has a nice, organized home, has gotten out of debt, or has lost a lot of weight. Whatever the case may be, they’ve worked at it, usually daily or at least weekly and they continue working at it regularly in order to maintain their results. Once I noticed this I began to understand that many times it’s not so much that the new program I started didn’t work, but that I didn’t work the program. And by “working the program”, I mean I didn’t consistently take the necessary action to achieve the result I desired.
Imagine you need to hammer something together. You hold the nail in place and hit it with the hammer, but the nail only goes in a little bit. You wouldn’t just give up and say, “This hammer doesn’t work!” No, you would keep hitting that nail, over and over again until it was all the way in. Well that’s how changes in life are, you have to keep hitting at those problems with effective actions over and over again until you breakthrough those problems and see success!
But the reason we usually get hung up and quit is because we are impatient. The verse says in due time we will reap, but we want to ignore that part, we want it NOW! 🙂 But the truth is that seeds take time to grow. And just like an actual seed sown into the ground doesn’t sprout 10 minutes or sometimes even 10 days after it’s planted, the various things we want to reap in life will not just “grow” that fast either. We must decide that we will do our part and keep patiently looking for the changes to sprout and prove our hard work is not in vain. And if we do not grow weary and give up we will see the fruits of our good work.
So, the next time you feel like giving up and start thinking, “I’ve been doing this for X days/weeks/months and I haven’t seen anything happen yet!” Get rid of that thought and tell yourself, “I don’t care what it looks like right now, I’m going to DO IT AGAIN!” Because God’s word is true, and He says that in due time YOU WILL REAP if you do not grow weary!
Remember, you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to keep going!!! 🙂 You can do all things through Christ Who strengthens you!
“The road to success is not straight. There is a curve called Failure, a loop called Confusion, speed bumps called Friends, red lights called Enemies, caution lights called Family. You will have flats called Jobs. But, if you have a spare called Determination, an engine called Perseverance, insurance called Faith, and a driver called Jesus, you will make it to a place called Success.” – Unknown

 

How To Fear Nothing

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Fear Not

 

“Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you…” Isaiah 41:10 AMP

Do you struggle with fear and anxiety? Do you ever feel like your fears are holding you back?

I felt the need to address this issue of fear because I am really starting to believe it’s one of the biggest problems most of us face. It seems there is no shortage of fearful situations and circumstances ready to bombard us on a daily basis. Maybe you are fearing that you won’t have enough money to pay your bills, or that your partner will cheat on you or leave you, or that you’ll lose your job. Maybe your afraid that you’re not good enough or that you’ll never see your dreams come true. But no matter what your fear is, God gives us a simple solution. He tells us “Do not fear!”

 

Now, perhaps you read that and thought to yourself, “Yeah, I’ve heard that…But it’s easier said than done!” I understand, because I too began thinking to myself, “I know that’s what it says, but in the face of fearful situations, how can I really have NO FEAR? Isn’t fear normal? Isn’t it just a part of life?”

 

The answer to that is NO!

 

Fear isn’t just something we have to put up with and accept as a part of life. The truth is that the Bible tells us plainly in 2 Timothy 1:7, that God has not given us a spirit of fear. So we know that fear is not from God and it’s never part of His plans for us. Now, let’s be clear, I’m not talking about completely getting rid of the physical effects of fear/anxiety (sweaty palms, heart racing, stomach churn, trembling, etc.) that we may experience when fear first comes up. Because I don’t think we’ll ever fully get rid of those initial feelings. But we don’t have to BOW to them. Feelings are not commands or instructions. We don’t have to let them CONTROL us. We still have the POWER to make decisions about how we will handle the fear. And that’s what God is telling us to do when fear comes up, to make a decision how we will respond to it.

 

So, how can we fear nothing? Honestly, alone we cannot do it. But that’s why almost every single “Do not fear” in the Bible is followed by “…for I am with you.” God never asks us to simply not be afraid; but He also gives us the very reason we don’t have to: because He is with us. And guess what? He isn’t afraid of ANYTHING!  How can He be? For any situation that arises, He already knows the perfect solution. Nothing is able to catch Him off guard or surprise Him, because He already knew it was going to happen before it did. And even in the most fearful situation you can imagine, I’ll bet if you imagined God in that same situation, you already know that He wouldn’t be afraid. Do you think when something happens, that God is up in heaven shaking and trembling wondering what to do? So it would seem safe to conclude that God doesn’t have any fear. And since He’s always with us, and He is never afraid, then we don’t have to succumb to those feelings of fear. We don’t have to bow to it in any way. In fact, FEAR should be afraid of us! Because we have a mighty God who is always there and always ready to fight our battles for us if we trust in Him.  So in the face of fear, shouldn’t we just laugh at it and say “Bring it on, you just don’t know what you’re in for”?

 

I hope this has encouraged you and prepared you for the next time fear tries to rear it’s ugly head! Remember Who you have with you on your side, ask Him to take care of the situation, and trust Him to do just that!

 

God bless!!