Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Give Thanks; Part 4

Did you come up with at least ten things you are thankful for? If you did I would love to hear them! You can either comment on this post or you can email me! Have a great day!:)

Give Thanks; Part 3

Like I promised, I am going to give at least 10 things I am thankful for. Now I said these would be unique and they will be... here, let me explain. When you ask someone what they're thankful for they say something like, "my house" or "my family" but they don't mention who gave those things to them. The things I am thankful for are going focusing on God, not what he gave me.

Here we go!:)

  1. I am thankful for God's love, because if we didn't have it then we would be totally lost in sin.
  2. I am thankful for God's divine power and His ability to do all things.
  3. I am thankful for God's providence. I looked it up and a dictionary and it says; having or showing foresight; providing carefully for. I think that pretty much sums that up.
  4. I am thankful for his power to be everywhere at the same time. Remember, he's always watching!!!
  5. I am thankful that God is all-knowing. He knows what you need and He will some how some way give it to you.
  6. I am thankful for God sending His son to die on the cross for my sins and saving me from eternal suffering.
  7. I am thankful for God's grace. Without who knows what would happen to us!
  8. I am thankful for God's patience. Because we all need it!!!
  9. I am thankful for God being the greatest Shepard ever. Without His guidance we would completely lost sinners.
  10. Finally, I am thankful for God. Yes I am thankful for God, because all he does for us we need to be thankful!

I hope these things remind you to be thankful! Always remember, God deserves all our praise honor and thanks! Have a great day!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Is Your Cup Full Today?

Is your cup full today? Are you completely satisfied? If the answer to those questions is, "Yes," that's great. But if it's not, it can be! In Psalm 23, David talks about a bunch of things God does for him, and he also talks about his cup "running over." Our cups can run over with God's love. God has convicted me lately that I don't need other things to be satisfied. I've done a couple posts on trusting God completely. I think that we also need to trust in Him to satisfy us. God can give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4), but we must trust in Him and delight in Him. So, while I'm tempted many times to trust in earthly things to satisfy me, God has been reminding me that He is the only One that can completely satisfy me. I hope this post encourages you to delight in and trust in God to satisfy you!!!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Give Thanks; Part 2

Well, Thanksgiving is 3 days away. Are you excited??? Are you going somewhere or staying home? Whatever you do, I'm sure you'll have fun!

Remember what our challenge was? That's right! It was to give thanks in any and all things. Right now I am thankful that I don't have school this week but I do have a lot of homework and I am struggling with being thankful over that. You may be struggling over that or something else, maybe an even harder situation. Since I am focusing in on being thankful, in the next post I will put at least 1o things that I am thankful for but, these will be unique and if you wanna know how then you will just have to wait! :) So the challenge for you today is to think of at least 10 things that you're thankful for. I would love to hear about them! You can email me or comment on this post or the next one I am going to do. I hope you have a great day and remember to be thankful!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Give Thanks; Part 1

Are you thankful? Your probably are sometimes, like me. But what about all those other times... maybe when things aren't going your way or something bad has happened, are you thankful in those times? Probably when something bad is happening you really don't want to be thankful, for anything. That's normal, because we are sinners by birth. Just because it's normal, doesn't give us the right to do it. Just because it's 'normal', doesn't mean it's acceptable. Hopefully, the next 3 post I do this month are going to be about being thankful. I am not pointing fingers or anything because I am a person that struggles with this a lot... I challenge you to give thanks in all things. Now I'm not asking you to be thankful for every single thing but, start out with baby steps and ask God to help you. Have a great day!


Colossians 3:15 (I encourage you to read this verse, it may help you in giving thanks!)

Monday, November 15, 2010

God's Will Part 2

A little while ago, I did a post on God's will. I said that I had been convicted lately that I need to be seeking God's will in my life. But what is God's will? I mean, some things we won't know until later, but what is God's will for right now? A couple weeks ago in youth group, my pastor did a message on just that. He told us some practical things that are God's will for us today and for the rest of our lives.

1) Salvation ~ God desires for each and every one of us to accept His free gift of salvation.
~2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4

2) Submission ~ God wants us to be submissive to those that He has put over us here on earth, and ultimately to Him.
~1 Peter 2:13-25

3) Sanctification ~ God wills for us to be sanctified and made more like Him.
~1 Thessalonians 4:3a

4) Soul-winning ~ God wants us to win souls for Him while we are here on earth. We must know how to answer those who question us about our faith.
~1 Peter 3:15

5) Surrender ~ We must be surrendered to God.
~Romans 12:1-2

6) Speech ~ God wants our speech to build others up and glorify Him.
~Ephesians 4:29

7) Spirit-filled ~ God wants us to be filled with His Spirit so that we can accomplish His will for our lives.
~Ephesians 5

8) Saying Thank-You ~ God wills for us to be thankful for everything that He has blessed us with.
~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Good Morning!

Hi everyone! I know most of our posts aren't normally like this but, I've always been the one to mix things up a bit:). My goal basically for this post is just encourage you. What is your morning routine? Does it include reading your Bible? If you answered no, then you're in the same boat as me... I struggle with reading my Bible everyday. I always come up with an excuse like: I'm have too much school to do, or I'll do it later (but later never comes). Not reading your Bible everyday is dangerous... not spending time in God's Word can draw you closer to sin, even if you think it's not happening... it is. My challenge for you is read your Bible everyday, no matter what kind of time you have... it's very important! Since I have been in that boat, I know that it is easier to do something if you're accountable to someone. So get a friend, a neighbor, a family member, and if you have none of those willing to do it, I would be more than happy to! Hope you have a great Morning!:)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Who Do You Trust In?

The other day, I got an email from my dad. It had a link to a website with a bunch of pictures from a recently-erupted volcano in Indonesia. Some of the pictures of the volcano were really cool, but the pictures of all the injured people and destroyed homes were so sad. Today in science, we watched a video and heard about tsunamis that had killed tens of thousands of people. One of the pictures on the website had a picture of a woman praying. And I thought, "I wonder who she is praying to? Is it to one of her country's false gods? Does she have any hope at all that the person or god she is praying to will answer her?" This made me even sadder, but it also made me glad that I have a God that I can trust in. I have confidence that He will answer my prayers. I thought of the verses Proverbs 3:5-6. This says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall directs your paths." This verse is always very encouraging to me, even though I've heard it many times. It never gets old to be reminded that I have a God that I can trust in! I hope this post encourages you, and please pray for all of those people that were affected by the volcano!!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Good Deeds: A Challenge

The other day I started thinking. I was thinking about how when we, as Christians struggle with a particular sin, and we know that we do, we will try to fix it. Which is a good thing, as long as we know that we can't apart from God's strength. But then I thought, "I think while we're so focused on all of the negative things, we miss out on the positive ones." I'm NOT saying that we should just let our sin go, but simply that we should be just as focused on that, while also trying to do good deeds. Christ did so many good deeds while He was on earth. Some of them, like doing miracles, we can't do. But, others, like being hospitable, etc. we can do. So, it is my challenge to you, and me, to try and do some good deeds this week. I think you'd be surprised at the results!!! I will comment in a week or two and let you know about my experience!!

*You may not struggle with this at all, but I recognized it as something I struggle with, so I thought I'd do a post about it. If you don't struggle with this, then keep doing the good deeds that you're doing now!!*

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

God's Will

The other night in church we sang "I Am Thine, O Lord" by Fanny Crosby. Like a lot of other songs have, this song convicted me. We got to the third stanza which reads:

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the pow'r of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.

The fourth line really got me. The Lord has been convicting me lately about His will. Not really anything specific that He has for my life yet, but just that I need to be fully trusting in and following Him. I decided to look up verses about God's will and see what they had to say. I found one that I really like: Proverbs 1:33. It says: "But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil." I really like the promise that that verse gives. It tells us that if we listen to God, we won't need to fear evil.


I then started thinking about what keeps us from God's will. I guess that we, as humans, just like to be in control. Most of the time, I LOVE being in control. Whenever I have a group project that I have to do, I want to be the leader. This isn't a bad thing, necessarily, but it is if I want my will over God's. This song and verse just inspired me to be so caught up in God's will for my life that I don't even think about mine. I hope it inspires you too! Later this month I'll talk about what God's will is for our lives...