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I can’t believe you are still here blog. You are a silly tiger.
Filed under: Faith, Personal | Tags: God, god loves, thankful, Thanksgiving
What do I deserve? Is a question that I play back and forth in the core of my brain. It is almost to the point that I think this object of finding what we are owed is troubling. I know I’m not the only one who goes through this in his faith walk but when you are in the pit it feels like that. I think we sometimes miss the high value God puts on all of us. I know I do. Think about this, He sent His one son whom he loved for us. He values us so much and yes we don’t deserve it but he has made us deserve it by making us worthy because of His great love for us. That is something to have great thanks for and gratitude. This thanksgiving, I need to cling to that reality. Yes, I screw up a lot and miss the mark but inside my soul there is a beckoning that wants only to be with God. Thank God.
All of us like to gauge where we are at on our spiritual walks far too often. We also often use the wrong things to gauge that walk too. Now, this isn’t an I’m guilty of everything post but it’s a realization on that I miss it and still have a lot of work to do. The other day at work a lady asked me a question about pom juice. She insisted that my department had always carried it even thou it has never for one day been on the shelf in nutrition. Of course this upset me because she started to get upset telling me how wrong I was. I have always done a good job at keeping frustrations and anger inside, so of course I just waved my head an said “sorry go look in produce because that’s where it is”.
See, the little things like this interchange could have been very different, even thou I didn’t start to shout, in my heart I was burning with anger. I wanted to tell her how wrong she truly was. That’s why after all of this I went to the back room and told everybody about it and how angry and frustrated I was because of her stupidity. God speaks to us in the little things, I started to hear myself and wonder “Can they see God?”. It’s a questions I like to ask myself at work because that’s why I’ve been placed there. See, it’s so easy to have that attitude of mercy when our environment is all of it. Like church but when you step outside those doors it’s very easy to miss the many chances we have to show someone the love of God. It’s in the small moments that the little things are seen. God wants to use us to show His great love. Here is a great verse that represents all of this!
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love
1 John 4:8
Filed under: Faith
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
I love that verse even thou I struggle with that concept. God loves us so much he wants to take all the worries we have and carry them for us. That is love.
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It’s hard sometimes to not fret or worry about life situations instead of having a heart of thankfulness. I struggle with that battle constantly. I’ve battled through life with many “what if’s and whys?” the lesson I’ve learned from that battle is its not winnable. My focus starts to verve to what I don’t have instead of the many things that have put in my life that are blessings from God. During this month which is themed after being thankful, I’m attaining to seek out an attitude of thankfulness and for God to reveal to me the many things he has given me that sometimes go unnoticed. I love this verse in, 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you
It must have been hard to be in the types of environments that those people were surrounding with and still choose to be thankful to God. I think of my time in Haiti, the people you see who have nothing still they choose to show praise and thankfulness to God. It’s something I think we all need to see to gain perspective on our life which will in turn show us that the circumstances we face can be overcome with God and showing are thanks for Him.
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I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.
1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Romans 5:1-5
Hope in the Greek is not a desire for a future event, It is trusting in fact. It’s releasing our grip from the life we live and allowing a greater being to guide us through the trails and troubles that we face. Hope in a God who will never leave you nor forsake you tonight. Remind yourself daily of His goodness, I know I need too. I’m gonna post one of my favorite switchfoot songs, “Only Hope”. I think it paints a great picture of how we are to go to God and truly put our Hope in Him.
Forgiveness is letting go not forgetting. The freedom one feels when they let go is beyond comprehension that’s why God calls us to forgiveness.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
In life sometimes we don’t feel God’s presence in our lives. The crazy concept of God is that He is always with you, even in the times when you wish He wasn’t. He doesn’t leave us ever. I can think through my life and recall the many mistakes that I wish that He didn’t see but He did. Yet, He still loves me beyond measure. Through my times of weakness, trail, success, and everything else under the sun He never left me. Rest in that on this night, that the God of creation will never leave you. Never.
I normally don’t write in a transparent style but I wanted to post this because someone might find encouragement in it. I have always lacked confidence in every facet of life. Whether that be sports, school, work, or relationships. I’ve come to find I’m waiting to mess something up rather then succeed. I can think back to a few instances playing little league baseball, where i was batting with the game on the line and every time thoughts of failure or messing up came to my mind. I could never quite shake that feeling and it never went away. The problem with this is it didn’t stop with baseball, it went almost on a route through my life and effected every area. Over the past few months I’ve been made aware more to it by the way I react to things that affect me. I’ve had some changes in my life over the past month and God has used them to teach me some things about my identity which has to be in Him instead of me.
I recently took a new job at my store, I run the nutrition section now. I first wanted the job because I wanted off midnight’s really bad but when I started to learn about what the job was after I got it I felt very weak. I found out that it was tons of responsibility and was a very difficult section to run. The same thoughts that have haunted me for a very long time of not being good enough resurfaced. I felt so weak and not able. It started to consume every area of my life. Over the first few weeks, I hated every second of it. It was too much work and I was stressed. I felt like I was doing such a bad job and would soon get moved back to midnight’s. Which was what I was secretly hoping for.
See when ever I feel overwhelmed in tough situations I get sick to my stomach and have strong anxiety attacks that affect me a lot. It almost becomes unbearable. I’ve started a process of asking God for strength in those times, and a friend of mine drilled the concept of always taking deep breaths and not thinking about tomorrow into my head. I’ve applied these things and God over the past three weeks has been changing my heart with this idea of being able, I have started to turn to Him more than ever and it has been paying off. I’m starting to see that, yes I’m weak on my own but with Him all things are possible. I’ve really started embracing my job and starting to believe I can do it and things have been turning around. I’ve probably been told about twenty times that I’m doing such a good job and it feels great. I’m so thankful for the people God has placed in my life who have affirmed that in me. I love this verse in James, I’ve always found it to aid me and remind me to ask when I need more of Him in my life.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5
