If you are a Christian, why do you live in fear, stress, anger? It’s a difficult question, because it makes you look inside where you thought it was all ok. But if you live in fear, stress, or anger, it’s not ok. Something is really wrong. If you live like that, you are no different from the person who does not claim to know Jesus. But you do claim to know Jesus, so why the stress?

The answer is because you don’t believe what you say you believe. Jesus said to fear not. He said to throw our burdens on Him. He said to be filled with His Spirit and live in joy. When we don’t do that, we suffer the consequences and it keeps us up at night.

Go back and read the Bible. Read how it says you should live and ask yourself if you are doing that. Repent and ask God to forgive you for not trusting Him and start all over. You can’t call yourself a Christian if you don’t obey Him. You are not called to pray a prayer of salvation. You are called to live a lifestyle of faith. Read it.  Decide for yourself if you really trust Him. This is your wake up call. It’s time to be who you are meant to be.

You know that God answers prayer. What does He say? If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:14) Of course, you have to be in relationship with Him. You have to know you hear His voice — My sheep hear my voice. (John 10:27) But what if you are hearing Him and it seems like your prayers aren’t being answered?

First of all, know that everyone will go through that. It’s wrong to assume that God answers prayers for everyone else but you. We all go through dry spells. It’s what you do during those times that will affect if and when your prayers are answered.

You have to keep believing. You have to remember how much God loves you. There are reasons for the delay. You have to trust Him. If the answer hasn’t come yet, does it mean that it never will? No, it just means that it hasn’t come yet! Maybe there are circumstances that have to change first. Maybe your heart has to change first.

Stay strong in faith. Keep listening for His voice. Be obedient to the things you know you need to do. Praise Him regardless of seeing answers. Praise Him for the answers. If what you want and need is of value to you, there’s no reason to stop believing.

Why was Peter the only one to hop out of the boat and walk on water? We don’t need to go into what happened next. The point is, he walked on water! What were the other guys doing? Watching him. They were scared. They didn’t believe. They weren’t willing to try it. They missed out.

Are you watching from the sidelines? Are you thinking: I have a job and a family, I go to church, I read my Bible, that’s good for me? No need to change the world? No need to release the kingdom?

Sitting on the sidelines is dangerous. Jesus was pretty cross with the Church of the Laodiceans. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. (Rev 3:) I’m guessing that God is calling you to do something, anything. You may not be responding because you haven’t learned to hear His voice. Or maybe you know exactly what He wants, but you don’t want to do it. Either way… dangerous.

What have you got to lose? I shudder to think. What have you got to gain? Peter walked on water! No one else did. You haven’t been called to the kingdom to do nothing. Time to get before God and find out what He wants. Don’t be scared. It will be awesome once you trust Him.

Wouldn’t it be great if God sent an angel to us everyday with our instructions for the day? It would make life so much easier without the guess-work. Instead, we’re left to work it out on our own. Sometimes we get a very clear direction for where to go and what to do. Those times great. But along the way, roadblocks can pop up. Our plans don’t work out the way we thought they would. Discouragement can set in.

When that happens, it feels like the phone line to heaven has been dropped. What are we supposed to do? We really wish that angel would come with instructions. But God did give instructions. What was the last thing you know He said? Go back to that and do it.

God will bless a decision to honor His will, whether it’s right on or not. He’s not required to bless a decision made out of rebellion because we don’t like the timing. The roadblocks may pop up, but keep on with what you know to do. Honor the word that you know you got and let Him work it out. Life gets messy, but God will bless your faith to trust Him.

Carry on. You’re closer to your goal than you think.

We are a people in great need of humility. The problem is, we don’t even realize it. Here’s the big test:

…Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. (I Peter 1:5-9)

Blind? Unable to even see how far away from God we are? This is serious. It means that we are in danger of walking away from God without even knowing it. What are those things again?

• Faith
• Virtue (morally good behavior or character)
• Knowledge
• Self-control
• Perseverance (continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties)
• Godliness
• Brotherly kindness
• Love

Stop right now and do a self-check. The Holy Spirit will show you those areas where you are weak. Look at that list and see where you know for a fact that you need help. If moral conduct is a problem, then faith is a real issue. Self-control? Be honest.

If we can’t live with these qualities, then we are not allowing God to change us the way He wants to. It takes a humble heart to repent and ask to be renewed, changed from the inside out. If God is showing you that you have been blind, now is the time to deal with it. Be real. Be humble. Be everything that you are meant to be.

Our life in the kingdom is more than asking God to answer prayer. We’re called to be in a relationship with Him. That’s the reason for the whole enchilada, the reason for creation, and it’s out of that relationship that our prayers are answered.

…he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb 11:6) See, it’s not in the asking that prayers are answered, it’s in seeking Him. When we spend time with Him, we don’t even need to talk much about our needs. In fact, God is more likely to give you the answers you’re looking for when you are just hanging out with Him. But He’s looking for diligent seekers.

What does diligence mean to you? Here is way to view what it could mean.

Diligence Level 1: Go to God once a day and ask for prayers to be answered.

Diligence Level 2: Go to God three times a day, maybe, with drive by prayers. You have a busy life.

Diligence Level 3. Set the timer on your phone to ping once an hour. Stop and contemplate God often during the day.

Diligence Level 4. You think of God all the time. You pause often in your day to think about His goodness. You love hearing His voice.

(This is not a formula. There is no formula. There is only you and God and how you relate to Him.)

The dictionary definition for diligence is “persevering determination to perform a task.”  How much of God do you want? What level are you now and what level do you want to be? Trust me, the more time you spend listening to the Holy Spirit, the more exciting your life will be. He promises to reward us, answer prayer, when we become friends. That’s what He’s looking for. And there’s nothing more awesome on earth than being friends with God.

Sometimes your plans fall apart, the opposite happens, or real tragedy hits. That doesn’t mean that God has forsaken you. It just means that you didn’t know what was going to happen. It also doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re wrong about something.

David was anointed king. He was clearly in God’s favor, but then spent the next several years running for his life. He didn’t do anything wrong. Paul was shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned, and eventually killed. He didn’t do anything wrong.

Stuff is going to happen. No one said that problems would go away when you become a Christian. In fact, they can intensify. The enemy hates our walk with the Lord and will work against us at every turn.

It’s a good thing to ask God if there is something that you do need to repent for or adjust in your life. Be obedient. But if you are and still find yourself in the middle of trouble, God is with you. He’s there to give you the grace that you need. He will help you in the middle of problems. He will be your peace when there is none. Learn to walk in His joy and trust Him with all the issues. He promises to work them out for us. And God doesn’t lie.

Elijah made the rain stop for years, then he made it start again. Mary made God change His timeline for Jesus’s first public miracle. In both cases, they spoke to the situation and expected results. They didn’t get a group together to pray about it.

Your faith can move mountains.

Jesus said, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (Matt 17:20) 

God responds to dramatic faith. There are times when we need to join together in prayer, and there are times when we need to speak to the mountain and tell it to get out. One person can do that. One person can feed five thousand people, walk on water, and raise the dead.

Elijah, David, Paul, Moses — they were all remarkable men, but they were just men. We’ve been filled with the Spirit and power of God to do amazing things. We have all the authority of heaven to release miracles in the kingdom. Imagine this world if every believer lived in dramatic faith. Try it.  Be that person and change what God has shown you needs to be changed. Mountains are about to fall.

Want to change the world? Want people to be saved, healed, and delivered from pain, abuse, and fear? There’s a secret weapon of the Spirit that will allow God to be God in all those circumstances. It’s called humility.

We are supposed to be the light of the world. Jesus is supposed to shine through us. When He does, He is seen and able to do the things that we cannot. But we have a bad habit of getting in His way, mostly unintentionally. It’s like we invite Him to a party to meet our friends, then stand in front of Him all the time. We work too hard, explain too much, and fear that He may not show up with us.

Humility steps back so Jesus can step forward. It’s faith and rest in Him. When we understand that He really wants to bless people, we can get out of His way and let Him be God. We can present the circumstance to Him, then sit back and watch Him work miracles.

It’s not about us. It’s all about Him. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) But with Him, all things are possible.