Category Archives: Taking Action

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!!

The Call

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Hello! Did you know that God had a specific purpose in mind when He put you here? It’s TRUE!!! Everything that God wants to do on the earth, He uses a PERSON to do it. And all throughout the Bible, whenever there was a need, He would select a person, and then tell them what He wanted them to carry out for Him. The most interesting thing is that, most of the time, the people who He called could not understand why He would choose them. In their own eyes they didn’t have any special talent or gift and in fact they would look at the things they DIDN’T have and basically tell God that they thought He had made a mistake in choosing them! 
Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5 AMP
 
In the verse above, God told Jeremiah He had chosen him to be prophet. Jeremiah responded by saying, “Oh Lord, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth.” He was basically telling God, I’m too young to do what you’re asking me to do! But God answered him by saying “Don’t say that you’re too young and can’t speak, because I will tell you what to say. Don’t be afraid!” And then God actually touched his mouth and put His own words in Jeremiah’s mouth. (Jeremiah 1:6-9) The end of the story is that Jeremiah went on to become a great prophet, predicting future events!! 
 
So the question I have for you today is, what has God called YOU to do?? And are you doing it? Or are you still arguing with God (and yourself, and possibly others) about why you CAN’T do it? If that’s the case, I’m here to tell you that whatever you think you’re “missing” that would prevent you from doing the great things God is calling you to do, God is saying that He Himself will give it to you (whatever it is)…if you will just decide to step out in faith and do it!!
 
Maybe you’re someone who is saying, “I don’t have a call on my life”. I would beg to differ! God is very purposeful. And you simply would not be here on this earth if He didn’t have a reason for it!  So, if you don’t think you have a purpose in life, then you have some homework to do! 🙂 And because God created you, He is the only One that knows what that purpose is, because it is precisely the reason why you are here. The first thing you need to do is ASK HIM what that is, so you can get started on that path! I can assure you that whatever it is, IF you accept the call, He will bring tremendous joy and blessings into your life! 
 
‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29:11
 
Here’s a short prayer to help you get you started… 
Lord, I know you’ve called me to do something great for You. Please show me what that is and give me the courage, so I can do it! Help me to not to look at my own abilities, but at Your ability, because I know that You will be with me every step of the way! In Jesus name, Amen. 
 
If you prayed that prayer, I already know that you are on your way to something WONDERFUL! I am so happy for you!! 
 
God bless you!!! 
 

Do You Have a Dream?

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'4:365 Dream' photo (c) 2008, RandyA38 - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

 

“How could you have a dream and not make that dream come true?” -Unknown

When I read that quote, something inside of me was awakened! It’s such a simple question, but it points out just how much power (and responsibility) we have for making our dreams come true. For most of us, when we think of our dreams, we think of a distant future where everything in our lives will finally be just as we would like it. Where we finally have that nice beautiful home we’ve always dreamed of, really nice cars that will bring us lots of haters, a great career doing what we love to do and makes us lots of money, and wonderful relationships with those we love. We think about it often, and when things aren’t going well in our current reality, we say things like “I can’t wait until…” and fill in the blank with descriptions of what our lives will look like once all of our dreams come true. 

Most often though, we aren’t actively making any plans to see those things become a reality. We just believe that somehow, someway, all those things will simply fall into place one day. God will “work it out” and make it happen for us because we’re good people and we deserve to be happy and live a good life. Right? 

But that’s rarely what happens. Most often people live and dream, live and dream, and eventually get to an old age wondering, “What happened?” They think about all the hopes and dreams they had for their lives, and they look around and wonder where the time went and how come they never got to live “the good life.” Some of you may feel this way right now, and you’re not old at all. 🙂 I know because I’ve had these thoughts myself at various times! 

I don’t want that for any of us! And I bet it scares you to even think that you might get to that place one day. But it doesn’t have to be that way! YOU have the power to ensure that doesn’t become your future. 

The first step is to pray about your dreams and ask God to show you what you need to do to make them a reality. God will help you, and He will give you the ideas, insights, and resources necessary to see your dreams come true. But you have to do what you CAN do in the natural, and God will add His super-ability to your natural ability.

I want to encourage you to dream big, and not only dream, but make plans to bring your dreams to reality. And don’t just think of all the big huge things that most people dream about. Think of your mind as a dream factory. Where you are constantly dreaming and implementing. Once you achieve one dream, start on a NEW one! I bet you will find that your life could be much more fruitful than it is now. No dream is too small or too big. Whatever you can conceive, you can achieve, if you just believe. That’s not just a cliche!


Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed. Proverbs 16:3 AMP

May God richly bless you!!!