God loves EVERYONE.

The ethics of some say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. God doesn’t see it that way. In fact, He will leave the many and go after the one. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? (Luke 15:4)

I wonder how many men would do that. God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Tim 2:4) He is amazing in His overwhelming love to save everyone.

This should affect how we look at people, every single one of them. No one is expendable in the kingdom. God wants us all saved. We were all lost before, and it is only by grace that we ourselves are saved, so we should extend that same grace to everyone, even the ones who reject it.

Ask God to open up your heart to see the lost as His precious ones. He can do what no man can, so don’t assume that salvation is beyond anyone. Don’t let angry words or violent actions dampen your compassion for people. God loves us all.

Your success is not as important as your love for God.

Your success in life is not as important as your love for God. Ouch! Does that sound wrong? It does by world standards. But what if your love for God comes through personal failure? What you gain is far more valuable than any economic or social success.

God is far more interested in your heart than your status. If you want success in life more than you want God, then your priorities are upside down. Put God first and let Him help you with your goals. Let Him give you better goals.

With God, it’s not the destination it’s the journey. How you get there means more than if you get there. If we want what He wants, then and ups or downs along the way won’t bother us as much. That’s a hard message to embrace in light of our very competitive culture. We can’t worry about saving face if we are living humbly before our God. Just get over it. The world isn’t going to understand.

It’s not that God doesn’t want to see you successful. He’d love to see you successful, if He can trust you with it. It’s that He’s concerned with how you get there. Love God with all your heart. You won’t lose your dreams. You’ll get blessed dreams.

It feels like it’s been years of me telling God what I wanted. I wasn’t asking to be rich and famous. I just had an idea of what I wanted for my life and would lift it up and press God to answer my prayers. I actually made very little progress seeing those answers come. In fact, it felt like taking one more trip around Mount Sinai.

I want what God wants for me.

But recently, I’ve  begun to see things from another prospective. What if I stop asking God for what I want and start asking Him for what He wants. He’s always going to want the best for me. He can see things that I can’t and knows me better than I know myself, so trusting His desires seems a lot better than trusting mine.

As I look at my life, I can see what He is doing in me through circumstances and time. I never would have asked for that myself. No one asks to be put in difficult situations just for the fun of it. but we want the positive affects that come after.

This is my plan going forward. I want what God wants for me, even if that means going through pressure to make me more like Him. I’ll take the pressure over the easy life any day if I get to be more like Jesus.

God will shine out of you in as many ways as you let Him.

There are so many aspects of God’s Spirit that He put in us that I like to think of it as a disco ball. Almost. A disco ball reflects light, and what we have in God shines out of us. But imagine that each ray that shines out is a different part of God’s Spirit.

There are times when you are needed for comfort. The ball rotates and comfort shines out. There are times when you are needed for healing. The ball rotates again and healing shines out. Encouragement, peace, joy, humility, love, patience all have their own rays of light.

God’s presence in us provides us with His God-filled assortment of responses for those around us. When we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we flow with Him and respond with that aspect that He wants to shine. We are not always joyful. We should be what He needs us to be.

Every aspect of God is available to shine out through us, we just have to be open to being changed in our hearts. The more you allow God to change you, the more different rays that will be opened up to shine out. The more light that shines, the brighter the kingdom.

Give God that areas you know you need help in.

The amazing thing about God’s love is that He loves us warts and all. We all have problem areas — those places where we find it hard to maintain our grace. For me, it’s customer services lines that aren’t helping me at all. I try so hard to stay cool, calm, and collected, but then the phone tree, and being put on hold, and then not being helped saps all the patience right out of me.

I know I need God to change my heart when I get impatient, so I give it over to Him. I ask Him to forgive me if I get irritable with the poor soul on the other end. I ask Him to change me to give grace instead. And when I know I’m about to make a challenging phone call, I pray for help.

I’m happy to say that, though I have not made a complete transformation, I have gotten better. I have more patience than I used to have and customer service people all over the world are happy for it.

You know where you need help. Give it to God and let Him exchange a problem for a blessing. Everyone will be happy you did.

God uses dreams to talk to us.

Have you ever had a dream you should have paid attention to? It’s amazing how often God uses dreams to communicate to us. I think it may be because we would freak out a little if an angel suddenly appeared. As much as I’d love to see that, I think it would be hard to concentrate on what he said.

The second chapter of Matthew alone describes four dreams that God gave to warn people. Three of them were to Joseph to protect Jesus. How interesting that God was watching out for His Son and used dreams to make sure He got His point across.

And He isn’t done using dreams to talk to us: And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)

God will use dreams to give you ideas, direction, or confirmation on areas you already know about. They can be very symbolic. Pay attention to the feel of the dream, if you are at peace or anxious. Pat attention to colors and numbers. Many images have very strong Biblical meaning.

God likes to use dreams, so pay attention and write them down. He could be trying to tell you something.

God is the source of all wisdom.

Making smart decisions is always a good idea. Work smart. Avoid making mistakes you may not be able to go back and fix. And the best way to do that is to work with the One who is the source of all knowledge and wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Prov 9:10) Of course, we’re not supposed to live in “fear” of the Lord. It means honoring Him, turning to Him, because He is wisdom.

That means that you need to hear Him when He talks to you. It’s not as hard as you may think it is. Settle your spirit and listen with your heart. If you know you need to repent about some things, then do that. If you don’t hear Him, ask Him for help. Pay attention to your thoughts. Did you just get an answer or idea about what you asked? Then go with it.

Include God in your business, your family decisions, your schoolwork. Imagine getting divine guidance and special treatment on the projects you are working on. It all starts with honoring God and making Him the great love of your life. Turn to Him first and get the wisdom He loves to give.

Making mistakes is part of life.

This is life. Life is messy and we will make mistakes, but we learn and we grow. But growth only comes if we learn from our mistakes. We have to be open to hearing what we don’t know and we need to make sure our pride doesn’t block us from learning.

Growing as a Christian is the same way. We will make mistakes, That’s not really as terrible as you think. Unless you are being obstinate about living in sin, you’re probably not going to make mistakes that will blow up the world. God is more interested in your efforts to try to obey. Making the effort and failing is better than making no effort at all.

I love this scripture, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. (Habakkuk 2:1) Make a determined effort to let God teach you. Be on the watch for His correction. He is a truly loving Father, so His correction will be kind, and it will be right on.

God’s correction may come from the mouth of a friend, so be open to receiving it. We all need guidance and counsel. Getting it from God is the best way to learn. Repent if you need to, and thank Him for showing you what you need to know.

The twenty-third psalm is such a wonderful inspiration. It should be your go-to source for when you need to be picked up and hugged. The Lord is my shepherd, the one who is in charge. He knows where He taking me. He knows the way, where it’s challenging, and where it’s easy. It doesn’t matter because He’s going with me.

If God is your shepherd, you are blessed.

He takes me to places of comfort and peace. Perfect places of peace where I am rejuvenated and strengthened and rested. He takes care of all my needs. He knows exactly what I need, even when I don’t, and He has it all worked out.

And when we have to go through the scary places, my eyes are only on Him, so I don’t see anything to worry about. He makes me so comfortable in His presence, that I’m not stressed by anything, even if everyone around me is freaking out.

He blesses me and blesses me and blesses me. I am so blessed, I can’t get my arms around it all. It keeps spilling over. And still He blesses more. I am so happy to be with Him. And I know I will be with Him forever and ever. I never want to be away from my Shepherd.

God has always been a God of great love. As severe as He had to be with Israel in the Old Testament, He was always loving and forgave their many indiscretions. So, why do we assume that He is mad at us? Why do we feel the need to perform for His love? 

Guilt does not come from God.

Over and over, I pray with people who feel guilty because they don’t feel like they’ve earned God’s love. Not people who don’t go to church, Christian people who know the word of God. They set an unattainable standard for themselves about what it means to live as a Christian, then beat themselves up when they can’t reach it, or maintain it.

The truth is, God never set those standards in the first place. God’s commandment to us is to love Him above all other things, and love other people. All the other stuff, is self-imposed. How many hours a day you pray, how many chapters you read in the Bible, how many hours you devote to handing out tracks — that is all stuff that you do to yourself.

Should you spend time in prayer? Yes, of course. But there is no required time limit. Your time with God is personal and should be what you need for your personal growth.  Don’t be guilted by other people who say they spend hours on their knees. Not everyone is truthful about that anyway.

Should you be reading your Bible? Yep. How much and how often? Think of it like this, how much and how often do you need to eat? You can get away with skipping meals, but if you don’t eat on a regular basis, you’ll get sick. Get it? Work out your own level for what works for you, then stick to it. You need the word of God to guide you through life. Don’t neglect it, but don’t feel guilty if you miss some time. God understands.

Give yourself the same grace that God gives. We don’t live under law anymore. We live by grace. And grace allows for last-minute issues that we don’t see coming. Grace allows for being sick and exhausted. Grace knows the love of your heart, not how many doors you knock on.

If you feel guilty because you don’t feel good enough, that’s not from God. That’s a twisted lie of the enemy and you don’t have to live like that. Give it to Jesus. He’ll take it and drop kick it out of your life. Receive His grace and relax. He loves you just as you are. He loves you wildly and extravagantly. Receive it and be happy.