Only You

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have gone over our soul;
Then the swollen waters
Would have gone over our soul.”
~Psalm 124:2-3

"Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep."
~Psalm 127:1-2

I have been reading through Psalms in my devotions, and these two passages caught my eye. I know that we hear all the time, "Only the Lord can truly satisfy." But these two passages really convicted me that not only is He the only One who satisfies, He is the only One who makes anything worthwhile. Unless our goal is to glorify God, and unless He is the one we look to for help, we will lose the battle we are fighting, even if it seems like we are winning for a little while.

That is the beautiful thing about being a Christian! We already know that we're on the winning team! God has already promised that He will have the final victory! So from now on, I am going to try to remember to only trust in God as my leader. No matter how many earthly leaders I have, I ultimately answer only to God!

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!

Are You Static or Dynamic?

In literature, a character can either be classified as static or dynamic. A static character remains the same throughout a work of literature, while a dynamic character undergoes some sort of change. So my question to you is: in the story of your life, are you static or dynamic?

The reason I ask this is because I believe that God desires for us to be dynamic. Most times in literature, the main character is dynamic. It is important that they change in some way to resolve the conflict in the story. We are all sinners, and it is important that we change so that we can be more like Christ. We must be sanctified. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are new creations once we are saved. So, we have definitely been changed. But we must not stop there. We must continue to let Christ transform our lives.

Romans 6:22 ~ But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (ESV)

We are Called...

A few weeks ago we had Missions Conference at our church. One of the messages Mr. Dodgens preached I really enjoyed. I hope you will too!

Matthew 28:16-20

• We are still called to be disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.


• He calls us to leave our old life to come and follow HIm.


• We should be completely committed


• John 6:60


• If you are a Christian, you are in Christ


• No man can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ


• We need to turn away all earthly distractions, just leave them behind and come follow Christ.


• Disciple - teaching and baptizing


• Romans 13:11-14 (put on the Lord Jesus Christ)


• We are commanded to "form into the image of Christ"(to become like Him) to be clothed with righteousness


• Philippians 2:2-8


• He livedfor others. He gave up everything He had for us.


• Jesus if the best and only example of how a follower should serve others.

He ended his sermon by telling us this, "For me to live is _____..." You would probably say Christ but sadly, most of the time we are not living for Christ. Just think about this as you go through your normal activities. "For me to live is Christ."

Our Purpose

Have you ever thought about what our purpose is on this earth? I mean God must have put us here for a reason right? Well, of course He did. And in this post we are going to look at what our purpose is. I know I've already done a post like this before but I think I need to do it again... I'm not quite sure why though;). Have you ever thought about why God put us on earth? We weren't put on this earth to just enjoy what it has to offer and die. We are here to bring glory to God in all that we do. I struggle with this a lot. It's hard to do everything to glorify God because our flesh longs for the things of this world, not the things of Christ. Just be constantly thinking... is what I'm doing glorifying to God? Hope y'all have a great day! :)

Do All to the Glory of God

The other day, I was listening to a sermon in church. The preacher said something that was so familiar to me, yet it was exactly what I needed to hear. It was almost like I had heard it so many times that I forgot. He was talking about doing everything to the glory of God. I often have a hard time doing all to the glory of God while I'm at school. I try, but it is really hard when you are surrounded by hundreds of people who don't share the same faith you do. The preacher saying that just reminded me that it is my job to do all to the glory of God, and I can do it if I'm trusting in His strength (Philippians 4:13). Lately I've been praying and just asking God to help me always focus on Him. If I am always concentrating on God, I won't have a problem with saying wrong things, etc. The problem is getting myself to focus on Him. The best way to help with that is to constantly read His Word. The more you read His word, the more you will focus on Him. I hope this is encouraging and helpful!

Living Outside the Box

Have you ever had someone tell you to "think outside the box"? I have had some experiences recently that have taught me to live outside the box and go outside of my comfort zone. Recently, a new girl from Africa came to my school. I was assigned to show her around the school and introduce her to all the teachers, etc. I love meeting new people, but this made me a little uncomfortable. I could hardly understand her accent, and I had to miss some of my classes to help her with stuff. Then, I realized: I really should be spending wayyyyyyyy more time doing things like this rather than spending all my time worrying about me, myself, and I. Most of the time, I just live inside my own little box, and I don't want anyone to bother me. But, I realized that that is a terrible attitude to have, and God has really shown me a lot through this circumstance. So, my challenge to you is: do something that is a little uncomfortable or inconvenient, but ask God to help you grow through situation. You'd be surprised what God can do!!

Again and Again and Again...

Does your life ever feel monotonous? Do you ever feel like there just has to be something more to life? I sure do. Lately, I've just felt like every day is the same. I go to school, come home, do homework, and go to bed. It feels like there is no end to the homework that I have to do, and I feel like nothing fun ever happens. But I came across a post on the GirlTalk blog that completely changed the way I thought about this (you can view it at http://www.girltalkhome.com/blog/changing-diapers...in-christian-faith. It's written for a slightly different situation, but it's the same concept, and I think it's got a lot of truth to it). It talks about the fact that we should feel honored to even be able to do the things we do. We should thank God that he died for us so that we could live the way we do: without condemnation. The things we do may seem boring to us, but we should be thankful that we have the things we do. Instead of complaining about having to come to school all the time, I should be thankful that I have a good school to go to. i hope that this encourages you and that it teaches you as much as it did me!