Understanding

If you try to understand me through the eyes of your own experiences, your only understanding of me will be a misunderstanding. For we have all walked along different paths and have known different fears. So if you can learn to accept me and the strange things that I say and do. Maybe, through your acceptance you will gain understanding.....

~understanding~
James 3:13 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom".

Proverbs 18:2,7 "A fool hath no delight in understanding" and his "mouth is his destruction".

Proverbs 14:29 "He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, But he who is impulsive exalts folly..."

Psalm 119:34 "Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart".

Philipians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus".

Faith NOT Fear

Mark 4:37, 39, “But soon a fierce storm arose. When he woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, "Quiet down!" Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.”

I feel a mix of emotions whirling inside me today. Why? Because I have to be video assesed for the fitness class I teach. I'm excited to get it over with as it has been a long time coming but I'm also so nervous that I can feel my heart beating out of my chest!!

Psalm 27:14, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord."

I know that despite my best efforts, God is in control ultimately and He is sufficient in the midst of trials,etc.

I must bring faith not fear to the surface....

Isaiah 41:10, "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

PRAYER: When I am tempted to give up and give in, may your Spirit urge me to fight the good fight and finish the race.
When a defeated thought enters my mind, may God capture it then replace it with His confidence.

Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Circumstance & Change

Luke 6:27-31, "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

What a powerful message!! I have a hard time with this as I'm sure many many people do. It's hard to not only show love towards, but to love, someone who has hurt you, don't you agree? It's also hard to constantly give to someone who you don't feel gives back or not enough, yet we are to do so. No questions asked.

!WOW!

say what again?

This verse came to me after I had a minor conflict with a dump truck this morning on my way to work. See, I was at a stop sign waiting for a gap in traffic so I could go. Obviously, the man in the vehicle behind me must have thought he saw the spaces I didn't in order to go or well, he just lost his patience (which maybe he never had?; Luke 21:19). Most likely the second, but anyway, he honked his horn. I, in return, flipped him off. Yes, sadly I went there!

I find a lot of people honk their horns all the time, which irks me. I think you should only when absolutely necessary, like to avoid an accident/wake that person up. Otherwise, honking your horn, I view, as a sign of rudeness.

So as I began to move, he went right along with me, not stopping at the stop sign (He must have felt he stopped long enough). The man proceeded to tail gate me. I could just feel the anger as if he wanted to ram the back of my car!

My goodness... I mean, why are people always in such a hurry? I go the speed limits so there is no reason to be on my bumper! Was he rushing to save multitudes of people from a bomb going off? I don't think so! He was driving a truck full of rocks! Yes, one of those annoying construction vehicles you aren't supposed to ride that close to because the peebles fly out denting your car... but because I had nothing to throw back at him except for my finger, I guess he figured it would be alright to move closer and closer safely!

Well, as you can tell by my writing that this situation quite bothered me. It bothered me that he did what he did and that I reacted how I did. Then as I got to work, I was directed towards the above Bible verse. Ahhh, God really knows how to speak to us and touch our hearts! Amen! He made me think....

I treated the guy how I felt he was treating me but two wrongs don't make a right and I should have treated him how I would have wanted to be treated. How do you show that driving along in a car though? Maybe I should have just pulled over to let him pass as a show of curteousy? He could have been in a hurry for some unknown reason to me, his mother could have been having a heart attack for all I knew!

I will take this lesson with me come next time... cause I'm sure that there will be another situation similar to this one sometime, unfortunately. Bottom line is if we'd like our circumstances to change, we must allow God to have His full way in us. To find a perspective beyond our own. Only then can we find incredible peace in the storms of life.

As You Think

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."1.....

Life's battles, challenges, successes and/or failures are all fought, won or lost in the mind.

"Keep your heart with all diligence," said Solomon, "for out of it are the issues of life."2 The heart in the Bible refers to the total mind: the intellect, the will, and the emotions. And that's the "mind" we need to guard with all diligence, and daily commit and trust to God.

For "what the mind dwells on the body acts on." If you don't agree with this, just think how temptation works.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to guard my heart and mind with all diligence ... and keep my thoughts focused on things that are 'true, pure, and of good report.' Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Proverbs 23:7. 2. Proverbs 4:23.

<:))))<><

via Actsweb

Greatest Motivation

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction

To worship God is to acknowledge His divine attributes. He doesn't need us to tell Him who He is. We need to keep our minds renewed to the reality of His presence. Notice how this is brought out in 2 Corinthians 5:9-11: "Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men."

Realizing that God knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, we should be motivated to live our lives to please Him. Someday we're going to stand before Him and give an account. The judgment that Paul is talking about in this passage is not for punishment, but for rewards. We don't fear God because of the possibility of punishment: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love" (l John 4:18). We have already been judged as to where we will spend eternity. But how we spend eternity depends on how we respond to God in this lifetime.

I personally don't want to limp into heaven and have Him say, "Well, okay, come on in." I want to stand before God someday and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord." That's the greatest motivation in my life. As a child I didn't fear the spanking of my father nearly as much as I feared being accountable to him and facing his disappointment.

I'm not disappointed with God and I sure don't want Him disappointed with me.

Prayer:

Lord, may the reality of my eternal salvation motivate me to wholehearted, grateful obedience today.

via Christianity.com

Pride Brings You Down

A person’s pride will humble him, but a humble spirit will gain honor.—Proverbs 29:23

Pride is the great enemy of the Christian. Pride is an overly high opinion of yourself. It motivates you to do things that you know are not Christlike, and it hinders you from doing what brings glory to God. Pride influenced Adam and Eve to try to become like God (Gen. 3:5). Pride motivated Cain to murder his brother (Gen. 4:5). Pride provoked Joseph's brothers to sell him into slavery (Gen. 37:8). Pride caused King Saul to resent David so deeply that he tried to murder him (1 Sam. 18:8). Pride led King Hezekiah to foolishly reveal his nation's wealth to his enemies (Isa. 39:2). Pride was at the root of the Pharisees' anger toward Jesus. Pride was the reason the disciples argued over rank in the kingdom (Luke 9:46).

Pride is your relentless enemy. If you succumb to its influence, there will be consequences. You may know that you have offended someone, but pride holds you back from asking forgiveness. You may realize you need to reconcile a broken relationship, but pride will lead you to deny that need. The Spirit may convict you that you are living a sinful lifestyle, but pride will discourage your admitting it. Pride will convince you that you deserve better treatment. Pride will impede your serving others. Instead, pride will have you striving for places of prominence. Pride will have you listen to flatterers and ignore honest counselors. Pride will lead you to isolate yourself so that you are not accountable to others.

Humility, on the other hand, is pleasing to God and places your life in a position where God will honor you. If pride has crept into some areas of your life, ask God to give you victory over it before it robs you of God's will for you.

—Experiencing God Day by Day

via Study The Word Ministries

TGIF (Today God Is First)

A Shoe Salesman

Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who felt God's call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him." Moody was deeply moved by these words. He later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, "The world had yet to see!...with and for and through and in!...A man!" Varley meant any man! Varley didn't say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, he'd be one of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he'd never realized before. It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at the Master's feet and say to Him, "Send me! Use me!"

D.L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, that sends out men and women trained in service for God.

Are you an ordinary man or woman in whom God wants to do extraordinary things? God desires that for every child of His. Ask God to do extraordinary things in your life. Begin today to trust Him to accomplish great things for His Kingdom through you.

via Christianity.com