Love Or Hate?

In Matthew 5; 43 it says "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'' But in the next verse Jesus says "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." I know you're reading this and saying why would I love people that hate me? We live in a world today where we are taught and its accepted to lash back at those who hate us and have something against us. But is that really the way, if you really think about it what is getting accomplished when we find ourselves going back in forth in a battle of words with friends or family be mindful of the people connected to you.

We all have had people in our life that we didn't get along with and honestly some of us still do. The bible tells us in Matthew 5; 46 "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?" It's easy to love those who love you. But what about showing love to those who hate you talk about you behind your back. Let God push you pass your haters a lot of the people that hate you want to be you. That’s why its important to understand who you are and be who you are even when it may not seem like the cool because God has a plan for your life.

You Really Confident..

What are you putting your confidence in or better yet what have you put your confidence in? This is something we don't think about as much as we should. The word confidence means putting full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing. I use to put a lot of confidence in myself and the things I could do until I saw that It never work! I would do good for a bit then I would mess up again. We all have put trust in something we like or someone we know and have been let down over time. 

"For the LORD will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught."

Proverbs 3:26

  

I love how the Bible puts that cause its so true we get so focused on our strength that we forget where it comes from. God gives us the strength that we need to make it through life but we must ask him for it. Next time things get hard and you don't know what to do just call on Jesus and ask him to help you. "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with your testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). Understanding this we have all we need when we go to God if we put our confidence in him we will be confident when situations come up.

  

Am I Setting The Right Goals?

What are your goals?

A question that I hear asked a lot is "what are your goals?" and I think that's a really good question and it should be answered. But let me ask a question how can someone know their goals if they don't understand their purpose? Purpose is the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. Everyone has a purpose but many don't seek after what theirs is and they seek after other things. We all have goals and things we want to accomplish in life and when we don't we wonder why? Your focus
should never be on you. The focus should be on God and what he needs us to do if we focus on this we wont.

          Stress, Worry or Panic

The three words listed above cause so many people in the world so many problems. And the question really is why? Cause if you look at the three words they all can be avoided. If we have the right goals we will keep focus and when stress comes we will get over it and then we wont worry cause God will give us peace and we wont panic when things get hard because we trust Jesus and not ourselves. What are you goals and do you know your purpose?

Need Peace?

Everyone has felt forgotten at some point in life and we all know how that feels. But the question is how do we handle that the next time it happens to us? I know in the past I use to get upset and try to look at myself and ask what did I do wrong or did I do something to deserve it. Many times we beat ourselves down over things we cant control but why... Last time I checked being angry and stressing over things we cant control never changed anything. God doesn't want us to handle problems like that because when we do we approach them the wrong way and not in the right mind set. 

John 14:27 - Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Does life have you down?

  
God has given us all peace and wants us to walk in that peace. But we forget at times cause we get caught up in our issues that make us forget God's peace and love for us. The scripture above tells us to not be troubled and afraid when trouble comes our way. Next time your dealing with something and you feel like you cant handle it remember God has your back and he loves you.

We Need To Talk

Who are you talking too? Is a question your probably wondering why I'm asking. It's important because we have the tendency to tell our problems and issues to all the wrong people and then wonder why we get the same result. With twitter and facebook its very easy now a days to get advice from people who don't have our best interest at heart. The most important person we need to talk to is God but many times we forget about him cause we feel like we can handle our problems on our own strength.
  
2 Chronicles 7: 14 If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Who are you talking too?

Few things I get from reading this the first thing is he said if we humble ourselves and then he said if we pray. Prayer is so important because thats the only way we can communicate with God. Many people have no prayer life and they are looking to God for victory & God is looking at you saying I haven't heard from you? When we take time to talk to God during the day we are showing humility because we are showing him that its not about us but its about him and we are showing him that we need him. God is looking for time with you he wants a relationship with you and he wants you to know him. Do you know him right now and have you been talking to him...

Help Is Not Far

Are you struggling? I ask that question because each of us struggles with something in our lives. There are things that we try to ignore and there are things that we can't. Too many times we allow our struggles to rule our lives and we don't step up and take on all the things that are taking us down. First, we must admit we have a problem. It seems easy but sometimes it's hard to admit when we have a problem with something or struggling with something because it's tough for us to let people see us at our weakest points. Second, we must talk to God about it. This step is very important because we like to pick up the phone, text and call people for help before we call on God. Now after we are honest with ourselves about our problems then we can communicate with God about it. Finally, we must step away from our problems. What does that mean? It means we must remove ourselves from the temptations that may cause us to stumble and fall.

3 ways we overcome ourselves!

• Admit our problems & being honest with ourselves about them.
• Talk to God about it & establish a prayer life.
• Remove ourselves from the problem/temptation.

Now only you know what things you struggle with and now you know a few steps on how to get passed the struggle. I'm not saying it will be easy but the bible tells us ''No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.''(1Corinthians10:13) So now we know that the battle isn't ours and we have some help, let's learn how to use it.

Are You Moving Forward?

Many people today are depressed, stressed out and confused about their life. And many people feel this way because they are still worried and thinking about things from their past.  They still haven't moved on from things that happened years ago months ago and for some people even days ago! You can't walk into your future and your destiny holding on to things from the past. God wants us all to walk in our purpose not the disappointments of our past. There are 24 hours in a day and you can't get back one second of it once that day is gone its gone we all know this but why do we still stress??

Are you going the wrong way?

Reason is because the enemy doesn't want us looking forward to our future and he wants you to think about your past mistakes and problems. If you're focused on the bad things he knows there is no way you can focus on the things ahead that are good. Don't get caught up in this trick!!! Too many people are living stressed out and depressed over stuff they have no control over. Move on from the past today don't be a prisoner of what you have done but be free to move forward with your life. Job 17:9 tells us “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.” (NLT) So why aren't you moving forward again? after reading this I pray you don't look back again and you keep pushing forward in the things God has for you.

2012

Is this your year?

It's the first month of a new year and that means it's time for a new attitude and approach to how we think about things. The stuff that we struggled with last year we should keep those things in the past. In 2012 focus on how you can better yourself and the people around you. I hear and see people who say they are going to change this and change that but their mind set hasn't changed. Let's focus on what we can control this year and let God handle what we can't. Let's put our mind set on the things of God and when we do that we won't stress as much or worry about the unknown because we understand where our help comes from. When we do this our approach will change and we will build faith in God. Let this year be a new year that is not like any other by seeking God first and asking him to order your steps.