Be Strong in the Lord

Have you ever heard the song Be Strong in the Lord? If not you should listen to it. The words to this song are very encouraging to me. As you read them, focus on what they're saying. I think this will encourage you with your spiritual life with God.

Be Strong in the Lord

Verse 1: Be strong in the Lord, and be of good courage;
Your mighty Defender is always the same.
Mount up with wings, as the eagle ascending;
Vict'ry is sure when you call on His name.

Chorus: Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And be of good courage, for He is your Guide.
Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And rejoice for the vict'ry is yours.

Verse 2: So put on the armor the Lord has provided;
And place your defense in His unfailing care.
Trust Him, for He will be with you in battle,
Lighting your past to avoid every snare.

Verse 3: Be strong in the Lord, and be of good courage;
Your mighty Commander will vanquish the foe.
Fear no the battle for the vict'ry is always His;
He will protect you wherever you go.


I hope this song encourages you. Have a great day!

All That I Need

I am posting this song as a follow-up to my last post on contentment. I used to LOVE singing this song in children's church when I was a kid.

By: Ron Hamilton "Patch the Pirate" (From "Once Upon A Starry Night.)

When I look around at all this world offers,
I begin to crave the things that I see.
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Savior.
He has promised Heavenly treasure to me.

All that I need is my faith in Jesus.
All that I need is my home above.
All that I need is my Father's Mercy.
All that I need is my Savior's love.

All the pretty toys shine brightly around me.
All the pretty houses glisten and gleam.
Riches seem to offer peace and contentment.
That is just a lie, it's only a dream.

All that I need is my faith in Jesus.
All that I need is my home above.
All that I need is my Father's Mercy.
All that I need is my Savior's love.

I think the song says it all.

Contentment

Proverbs 30:8 ~ Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

I have been thinking about contentment a lot lately, and this verse came to mind. I really like this verse because I think the Psalmist hit the nail right on the head when he wrote it. No one wants to be poor. But this verse explains that we don't have to be rich either. When you think about it, being extremely rich and having no one to share your wealth with would be an extremely miserable life. This verse encourages me to be content with what I have. I am neither poor nor rich, and according to the Psalmist, this is ideal. I am so thankful for everything that God has given me, and I should never take it for granted. I have written a lot about thankfulness and contentment, but only because it is something that I tend to really struggle with.

But, we can still be rich in the sense that we have the greatest Father anyone could ever have. My 7th grade social studies teacher told us that he was one of the richest men we would ever meet. He said that there had been times when he'd only had a few dollars in his pocket, but he had great family and friends and a life full of love. So, I encourage you to me like him. Be rich in love, but when it comes to material wealth, be content with what you have.

I Will Praise Him

Though the way seems straight and narrow,
All I claimed was swept away;
My ambitions, plans and wishes,
At my feet in ashes lay.

Refrain:I will praise Him! I will praise Him!
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood can wash away each stain.

I am always convicted as I sing this second verse of "I Will Praise Him." The line "My ambitions, plans, and wishes, at my feet in ashes lay," always gets to me. I just don't respond well when my plans don't go the way I want. I will plan something out exactly how I want it, and then it will fall through. I know that the Lord has a plan for it, but I have a hard time accepting that when I don't understand what that plan is.

But in this song, right after that line, the author is still praising God. This is always convicting to me. Even when those things happen to me, I should still praise God for what He has done. Our small plans pale in comparison to what God has planned. If we just persevere through hard times, it will be amazing when we get to Heaven and see how God used our circumstances for His glory!!

From Running to Religion

What do you think running and your religion have in common? Anything? Well, I do. The main thing I see is that they both require a great deal of discipline. I mean you're not going to want to get out of bed and read your Bible just like you're not going to necessarily want to get up and run at 6 a.m. every morning. They both require constant training. We must be constantly spending time in God's Word to get everything out of it that we possibly can. Just the same, with running, you must constantly be pushing yourself harder because if you don't you will lose all you had gained. The last one I think about is how they both make you feel. When I get up and spend time learning in God's Word and then praying, I feel refreshed. It helps me to go through the day in a much better attitude and it makes me feel great. Same with running (most of the time...). Most of the time when I run I come in feeling refreshed. Feeling confident that I just accomplished something else that I thought I couldn't do. My purpose for this post is not to make the Bible equal to running, but to a make a practical application. I've shared with you before I learn something a whole lot better if it can be compared to something athletic. I hope this post encourages you! Have a great day! (:

Obey~Respect

Have you ever thought about what obedience and respect have in common? I never really put those 2 together until now. I always thought respect was saying yes ma'am and yes sir... you know stuff like that. I never really thought about respect starting with obedience. I have been wrong about this for my whole life and I am going to try to do better. By not obeying your parents or doing what they said with a bad attitude, you are being disrespectful. They are telling you those things because that's what they think is what's best for you. Whether you like it or not, it's true. I really want to challenge all of us to obey our authorities with a respectful heart. That's what God would want us to do. I hope you have a great day!

Procrastination

Procrastination. I'm sure many of us do this a lot. I know I do. It's very easy to just put things off. In my opinion procrastinating should be put to a minimum. I mean we shouldn't do it. When I think about the best motivation for not procrastinating, I think of Christ. Did He procrastinate about dying on the cross for our sins? If I were Him I would've put that off until the last minutes but He didn't I encourage you to stop procrastinating and just do it. Don't put it off any longer:) Have a great day!

Fear of Failure, a.k.a. Pride

If I had a penny for every time I didn't do something because I thought I would fail, I would be rich right now. I am always terrified of failing and looking like an idiot, so I don't do something and then end up regretting it. I realized how much this related to pride. I had always resented the quote "What other people think about you is none of your business." I argued that it was definitely my business because it was about me. I am very much a people person. I love interacting with other people, and I really want other to like me. I want people to think I'm cool.

I almost let fear of failure keep me from running Cross Country. I knew that I would start out as one of the worst ones on the team, and I didn't want the people my age looking down on me because I was less experienced than them. But, the Lord finally broke my pride in that area, and even though I'm not great at it yet, I am LOVING Cross Country.

So, my advice to you is, don't let pride keep you from doing something that you think you should do. Trust me, the regret is not worth it.

Are You Excited?!?!?!

Do you get excited a lot? About your faith? I was reading through my devotions the other day, and something caught my eye: an exclamation point. It's not often that you see these in the Bible, so when I do, I pay attention.
2 Corinthians 15:7 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" If you ask me, Paul was right on in putting an exclamation point right there. That is definitely exciting. We DO NOT have to live the sinful lives that Christ saved us from. We are redeemed!! Thanks to Christ, we can live in victory. If you are struggling with a sin, you don't have to be! Ask Christ to help you. He will!
This was just a thought I had, and an example of practical things you can get out of your daily devotions. Hope this is encouraging!

Blessings

I was sitting down thinking the other day... well, maybe I was standing... I'm not sure... but anyway... I was thinking about how all the time I am asking for stuff and getting upset when I don't get what I want... that's is not a good way to be. It gets into one of two places... 1. You get in a ton of trouble with your parents and get something taken away... 2. You become a brat and nobody wants to hang out with you. I'm sure there's more but I will just leave it at that. I think our focus should be switched from what we want to what we already have. God has already given me so much and yet I keep asking for more. And the sad thing is, when I ask for stuff it's what I want because I already have what I need. When I think about how selfish I'm being it's really eye-opening. Next time you think about wanting something think about all those people who don't even get what they need, let alone what they want. When I think about that it makes me content with what I have. Not only should we be less selfish on the outside, we need to be less selfish on the inside. We can start by instead of asking God for more tell Him how thankful we are for all He has given to us. Then everybody's happy :) I hope this encourages you! Have a great day! :)