Trust God and relax in the storm.

Do you need to have everything peaceful in your life to believe that God is on your side? It would be helpful to realize that God is always on your side. The disciples panicked in the boat when the wind and rain threatened to capsize them, but Jesus was with them and rebuked them for their little faith. (Mat 8:25-27)

The disciples needed to know that even when circumstances weren’t just bad, they were terrifying, God was with them. The wind and the rain didn’t affect how God would save and protect.

It is a lie of the enemy that says when things go wrong, or look scary, that God isn’t with us. Even if the situation is a problem that we created ourselves, He is still on our side. He is still working to save, heal, and deliver. He wants the best for us, no matter how bad it looks.

Fear not. Repeat to yourself, fear not. God is with you. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. Relax and trust Him. If you are not relaxed, then you are not trusting Him fully. Once you decide to let Him help you, you’ll see a world of difference. He will do what you can’t. He’s God, so let Him be God for you.

Teach us to be faithful.

Jesus does not mince words about describing hell. It’s a real place and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. But what is really terrifying is who He says will go there. He tells the story of the faithful servant doing what he should be doing while the master is gone. Then He tells the story of the evil servant who beats his fellow servants and drinks with the drunkards. When the master comes back, he will be furious and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 24:51)

With the hypocrites! Not mass murderers or pedophiles. When I look back on my life, I see how much I said I believed in God, only to give in to panic and fear over and over again. Yes, that was hypocritical. Hypocrite: a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs. (Merriam-Webster)

God save us from hypocrisy. Help us to trust You and live as You taught us to live. Help us be light and salt to the world. Let us be Your good and faithful servants of the kingdom. Help us to grow from faith to faith, trusting You with everything we’ve got. Let us live in your blessing, on earth as it is in heaven.

Times of trail make you perfect!

What’s the deal with going through trials? Isn’t it hard enough with an enemy working against us and our own bad decisions? Apparently the shaping and molding that we need requires pressure, and that’s where trials work their best.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,  (Jam 1:2) Trials test our faith. Will we freak out, or will we turn to God for help? That’s exactly what He’s looking for. Who will you turn to when the pressure’s on? It’s easy to fall back on habit and fear, but God is trying to get us to turn to Him. He may not take us out of the trial, but He’ll definitely go through it with us and work it all out.

That trust produces patience. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (Jam 1:3-4) Now that’s something to be joyful about. All that pressure to mold and shape us to trust God does something in our spirit that God sees as perfect. And the next time you hit that situation again, you’ll respond in trust.

It won’t be easy or fun, but it won’t be bad either. When you feel the peace of God when you really, really need Him, you know it’s going to be ok.  You’re being made perfect!

Fear not, live in peace.

Fear is insidious. I hate it. It sneaks in to make you nervous and anxious when you could be perfectly calm and at ease. Are you running late? How does that make you feel? Panicked? That’s fear. Are you facing a deadline, a report, a major inspection? Feeling a little scared? Feeling a lot scared? That’s fear.

We are told over and over again to “fear not” in the scriptures. That includes all the nervous, anxious, panicked, worried, and everything to do with being terrified feelings. It is the enemy’s favorite weapon because it’s so effective against us. We fall for it every time.

If we are to truly live without fear, then we have start believing that God has us covered. He is our shield and protector, as long as we put ourselves under His protection. The minute you recognize that you are worrying, or anxious, confess it and claim the peace of God for your life. You’ll feel it settle over your spirit and you can relax.

Even when you make a mistake and have to face the consequences, give it to God. He said to fear not, so He’ll work it out. He’s the best backup in the world. And life is so much nicer when you live in peace.

There is danger to being too good at what you do. You know who you are. The one with seven or eight balls in the air and a hoop twirling around your ankle. You’ve got so much stuff going on that you are busy all the time. Part of that may be perfectionism that won’t allow you to let other people do anything. And part of it is that what you do is very complex and needs your full attention all the time.

That’s not a bad thing, if you are doing it with God’s blessing. When do you stop having His blessing? When you stop trusting Him. When you stop spending private time with Him. When you get so busy that you forget, or just don’t have time.

Make the decision to find your rest in Jesus.

That’s when trouble starts to happen. Burnout sets in and you get exhausted, or sick. That’s because you let your shield down and enemy is allowed to take pot shots at you, and he will. You are called to rest in the Lord, even in the middle of all that you do.

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. (Isa 30:15)

No matter how busy you are, learn to rest. Learn to trust God to help you through the day. He can do things with time that you would not believe. He will give you the help and resources you need. Just rest. You need it more than you know.

A rich young man went to Jesus and asked, “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” After he clarified that he had been keeping the law since his youth, Jesus touched him where it hurt. He said, “Go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Mat 19: 16-21)

God wants your whole heart, not part of it.

The young man went into shock. He did not see that coming, because he thought that his efforts had been for God when they weren’t. If his life had been focused on God, above everything, he would have said, “Ok.” His reaction made it clear that he was going through the steps of obedience without the heart of obedience. His heart didn’t belong to God. God was secondary to everything else in his life.

How would you answer Jesus? Could you give up the one thing that you think is most important in your life? Could you do that cheerfully? Sometimes He doesn’t make it easy. He’s not calling everyone to sell what they own, but if you can’t, it shows that your trust is not in Him. If God asks you to give up something, it’s because He’s about to give you something better. Will you trust Him? Will you trust Him just because? Set your priorities now. Don’t make Him test you.

You are a heartbeat away from grace and healing.

I think we would be amazed at how many problems we have to deal with that we brought on ourselves. We blame the devil or we just assume that life happens and that includes all the bad stuff. But the Bible says this: Fear the Lord and depart from evil, it will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. (Prov 3:7-8)

There are cases where our own actions and lifestyle brought on the sickness we live with. That means that God is not being honored or worshiped. He’s not loved above everything else. When that happens, we are open targets for the enemy to attack, and he is free to do so because we have no shield of faith.

The good news is, all we have to do is repent and turn to God. Repent means to turn away. Tell God you’re sorry for how you’ve been living and put Him first in your life. Once you are straight with Him, He can protect you and heal you. Not only that, He can bless you in areas you haven’t even asked for.

Sin is evil and will kill you if you don’t stop. But God is amazing and gracious and waiting to bless. You are a heartbeat away from receiving grace and healing.

You are all new in Christ.

Are you being haunted by the ghost of your past? What I mean is, are you still being tempted to respond to your surroundings like you did before you came to Christ? Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2Cor 5:17) Your old self was put to death when you became a new creation. Those old ways of thinking don’t belong to you any more.

It’s unfortunate that we’re not the only ones who know about our past. Our friends and family can expect us to respond like we used to and make it easy to fall into old patterns. Also, we have an enemy with an excellent memory. He knows exactly how to push our buttons.

When that happens, just say no. You don’t have to be tied to old ways of thinking and responding. Rebuke the enemy and he will flee from you. Tell the ghost of old ways to lay down and be dead. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will renew your mind and give you awesome thoughts.

You have actually been renewed. These are not just nice words. But if you don’t live it, then it will not do anything for you. Trust God to make you into what He sees in you.

Faith is just trusting God to be God.

There is a difference between hope and faith. We pray and give our requests to God, and hope that He will answer, because we know that He can. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. (Mat 8:2) The leper had hope of being healed because he knew that Jesus had shown the power to do it. He just didn’t know if Jesus would do it for him.

We pray like that a lot. We know that God has the power to do anything for us. We’re just not convinced that He will. What happens when we pray knowing that God will answer? Doors will open. We can pray like that because we know that God loves us immeasurably. He dotes on us. He’s just waiting for us to trust Him to be the amazing Father that He is.

The woman from Cannaan went to Jesus and begged for her daughter to be delivered. She was relentless, because it was so important to her and she knew that Jesus could do it. At some point, she knew that Jesus would do it. Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Mat 15:28)

He gave the woman her heart’s desire because she believed, she didn’t hope. Know that God wants to bless your desires. Stop hoping that He will and start believing that He will.