Devotions - Prayer
“Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold, and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path. Psalm 119:127-128
What’s your attitude towards God’s commands?
*Do you fear them?
*Do you resent them?
*Do you try to get away from them?
****That’s a foolish attitude.
Remember, God gave His commands to us:
*Not to create problems for us but to solve them
*Not to harm us but to help us.
God Loves us and wants the Best from us–He calls us His Masterpiece!
God’s love is in His commands.
They are given to save us from ourselves, to save us from evil, to show us the way out of our difficulties and our problems.
But God’s commands are infinitely more precious and the psalmist had learned that.
Instead of running from God’s commands, resenting them, obeying them reluctantly, he said, “I love your commands more than pure gold.”
And then he said, “Because I consider all Your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.”
You see, when we love God’s commands and obey them; automatically they:
*Reveal to us what is wrong.
*They show us how to distinguish between good and evil, between what is beneficial and what is harmful.
*And when we are walking in the light of God’s commands, they keep us from everything harmful, from everything hurtful, from every wrong path.
*and we too experience God’s Love for us and in us.
“I acknowledged my sin to Thee, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said ‘ I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’; and Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.'” Psalms 32:5
God’s 10 Commandments are our perfect loving Boundaries set by God.
“God’s statutes and commandments are my delight worth more than gold and silver and they give me understanding”.
“Secrets to a Blessed Life” lies in the Power of God’s Word-Jesus.(see John 1)
I’d like to challenge you to pray through Psalm 119.
This Psalm is an acrostic poem (each section correlates to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet) with 22 sections.
*Take one section a day.
*Read a verse, then pray that verse to God in your own words.
*If you do this from your heart, I believe you will begin to love God’s Word more than you ever have. (I can say this because I have done it.)
Psalms 119:33 Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes, so that I might observe it continually. Amen
Read MoreRight before Jesus went to the cross, he gave his last minute instructions to his followers: “Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me” (John 15:4).
Jesus says that being spiritually connected is like being attached to a vine. You’re not going to have any fruitfulness or productivity in your life if you’re out there on your own. You’ve got to stay connected.
In plants, a disconnected branch can’t bear fruit. When you don’t have the support, you not only start to whither and die, but you also don’t have any productivity in your life if you’re not spiritually connected.
We’ve got to be connected in order to produce fruit.
What kind of fruit should you produce when you are connected to the Body of Christ? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control” (Galatians 5:22-23a).
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be more loving. I’d like to be more joyful. I’d like to be more at peace, no matter what happens to the economy. I’d like to be more kind to people who are mean to me. I’d like to be a good person. I want to be faithful, not unfaithful. I want to keep my promises. I’d like to be gentle with people who are not very gentle. And I’d like to have more self-control.
That’s called the fruit of the Spirit, and it’s the evidence that you are spiritually connected. If you are not seeing yourself grow in all these things, guess what? It means you’re not spiritually connected.
God says this is so important that you’re not going to have any fruitfulness or any productivity in your life if you’re out there on your own.
I’ve got to be connected to the Body of Christ. You’ve got to be connected to the Body of Christ. We’re simply better together.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
- Yes we are created for relationships, not to go through life alone!
- We is always better than Me!
There have been so many times I have tried to go out alone. Now I am so grateful for fellow believers who are doing life with me. Encouraging or confronting whatever is necessary.
Thank you Jesus for the Body of Christ-Amen
Read More
Jesus said in John 15:14, “You are my friends if you do what I command” .
- You can’t say you love Jesus and then go live like the devil.
- You can’t say you’re a Christian and then keep on living a self-centered life.
- You can’t say you’re a follower of Jesus and then pick and choose the verses that you want to listen to and ignore the ones you don’t.
- Jesus says you’re his friend if you obey him and his commandments.
Why do we obey God? Nonbelievers get this wrong all the time. They say, “I don’t want to be a Christian because I don’t want to obey God. You believers obey him out of guilt or fear or obligation, and I don’t want that for my life.”
Why do we believers really obey God? Because he loves us! He wants the best for us. He loves you like nobody else will ever love you. The Bible says the only reason there’s love in the world is because God is love.
- We don’t obey God out of fear or guilt or obligation.
- We obey God out of love because he loved us and saved us.
Some people say, “Because you’re a Christian. You can’t do any of the fun stuff the rest of us do.”
Just look at them in the eye and say, “I could take all the drugs I want to take. I could get stoned all I want to get stoned. I could drink all I want to drink. I could go to all the parties I want to go to. I could go to bed with as many women as I want. I can disobey my parents.” But here’s the difference: Jesus changed my “want to.” I didn’t want to do those things then. I don’t want to do those things now. They are cheap, phony thrills that seem to give a temporary kick to life but then they kick back. They may look like freedom, but they don’t last, and they lead to despair, not dignity — depression, not delight.
John 15:9-11 says, “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me … When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
God doesn’t want you to obey him because you’re afraid of him. He doesn’t want you to obey him because you’re scared of punishment. God wants you to obey him because of love. It’s HIS love that leads to true joy. AMEN
Read More
We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5b.
Here’s the secret to temptation: Don’t fight it. Just refocus. Whatever you resist persists.
Did you know that in the Bible, not once are you told to resist temptation? We are told to resist the Devil, and that’s a whole different issue.
But the key to overcoming temptation is not to push back. It’s to change your focus.
Whatever gets your attention gets you.
- The battle for sin always starts in the mind. That’s why the Bible says in Psalm 119:6, “Thinking about your commands will keep me from doing some foolish thing”(CEV). Why? Because if you’re thinking about God’s truth, you’re not thinking about the less important stuff.
It’s true in every single area of life — good or bad.
- If you focus on godly things, it’s going to pull you that direction. If you focus on the stuff that’s at the movies and in magazines, it’s going to pull you that direction.
- Whatever you focus on gets your attention.
- Whatever gets your attention is going to get you.
- The key is to just change your mind.
Temptation always follows a predictable pattern: attention, arousal, and action. Your mind gets hooked, your mind kicks in, and then you act on it.
So you don’t fight a temptation; you just turn your mind to something else. “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NCV).
The thing is, we’re not very good at capturing every thought and turning it to Christ, because it takes lots of practice. You can’t always control your circumstances, and you can’t even always control the way you feel. But you can control what you think about. That’s always your choice. And if you change the way you think, it changes the way you feel, and that will change the way you act.
Psalms 119:11 Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Psalms 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept your word.
1 Corinthians 10:13 There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Hebrews 2:18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man:
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
AMEN
Read More
Psalm 142:3–4 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.
I wonder whether you’ve ever felt like that: “No one cares about me. They don’t mind whether I live or whether I die. All I have is problems. I’m walking in a path and there are hidden snares on it. There are problems I don’t really understand and I don’t know how to solve. I can’t see any source of help. I look to the right, I look to the left. No one bothers about me. I’m just a speck of dust in the universe. I’m just a name on a list somewhere. There’s a birth certificate in some dusty office that relates that I was born, but no one cares.”
That’s not altogether true. There is someone who cares. There is someone who knows your way. That’s what the psalmist said, “When my spirit grows faint within me it is you who know my way.”
You may feel lonely, neglected, uncared for. You may not understand your own way, you may not know the problems that lie ahead, you may not have an answer to them all, but there is one who knows: it’s the Lord. He knows your way.
- He is with you;
- He will see you through if you will turn to Him in prayer.
- You are not forgotten, you are not neglected, you are not unwanted.
- He made you, He cares for you, He’s with you.
HOW DO YOU THINK JESUS SEES YOU?
- Ephesians 2:10: You are His Masterpiece.
- Psalms 139: He knit you together in your mothers womb.
- Ephesians 1:4: He knew you before the world was formed.
AMEN
Read MoreJesus replied, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. (John 3:3)
A new birth is absolutely essential to enter the kingdom. John points to a radical new beginning which comes from above.
• It signifies God must do this.
• It is speaking of something radical, a new beginning.
• It is a second birth, but it comes from above.
• It is God that does it, not man; and it results in a new creation, a new beginning.
This idea appears many times in the New Testament.
• Paul speaks of babes in Christ, (1 Corinthians 3:1).
• Peter says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow, (1 Peter 2:2).
• Again Peter says we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, (1 Peter 1:23).
• And he speaks of being born to a living hope, (1 Peter 1:3).
• Paul speaks not only of being new creatures in Christ but of a new creation; of passing from death unto life, of a new, radical start.
Jesus makes clear that this is the only way to enter the kingdom of God.
To be in the kingdom of God, of course, is to belong to God; it is to be a part of his rule, his reign, his domain. Paul speaks of being transferred from the kingdom of darkness, ruled by the god of this world, into the kingdom of the Son of his love, (Colossians 1:13).
Thus, Jesus was referring to a transfer of citizenship, a radical departure from what we once were.
Jesus sensed in Nicodemus (John 3) a deep hunger, an emptiness. Here was a man who was doing his level best to obey what he thought God wanted, yet he had an empty and unsatisfied heart that led him to seek out Jesus by night, at the risk of the displeasure of his peers, to talk with him about the kingdom of God.
Sensing this our Lord immediately puts him on the right track, saying to him, in effect, You are wasting your time if you think you can enter the kingdom of God the way you are. You cannot do it. You must be born again.
Father, thank you for the miracle of new birth which comes only from above. It is only through your great power and love that such a thing could happen to me. Amen (See Ephesians 2:1-10 too)
“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.” – Ecclesiastes 7:9
Anger can result from many circumstances. Anger is like warning lights on the front of your car dashboard. They signal that there is something going on under the hood, and we should take a look to examine the source of the problem.
Anger can be traced to a few sources.
First, when we lose control of a circumstance that we have placed certain expectations on and those expectations do not result in our desired outcome, we are tempted to get angry.
The source of this type of anger is both fear and protection of personal rights.
You see, when we believe we have a right to something, we have not given the Lord permission to allow an outcome different from what we want.
If an outcome is different from our expectations, this may stimulate fear.
The next time you get angry ask the Lord what is the source of that anger? Did the Lord allow that failure to let you see what is “under your hood”? God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind (see 2 Tim. 1:7).
In Genesis 4 the account says that Cain was angry at God’s rejection of his offering, and his face was downcast.
Cain was angry and resentful.
Cain was jealous because his brother was accepted and he was rejected. As the New Testament tells us, he was angry because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous (1 John 3:12), and so he was filled with jealousy.
But notice God’s grace. He simply asks him a question, Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
That is the best question to ask a jealous, resentful individual. Why? Think it through, now, why are you so angry? Why are you filled with resentment against this person?
Why should you assume that you have special immunity to the normal problems, injustices, and trials of life?
How often I flare up with jealous anger Lord, when I feel I am being robbed of what I deserve. Forgive me, and continue to remind me that Your ways are, indeed, not my ways. Amen
” My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ. ” Colossians 2:2
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27).
Are there things that make you laugh when you think of the miracle that would be required for it to take place?
Ask God for the miracle you need today.
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28).
God reveals His truths to us in stages and not all at once (Isa. 28:9-10).
The truths of God are mysterious only to those who do not soften their heart by seeking God with their whole heart. As Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
The piece of armor known as the “sword of the Spirit” is the only piece of armor that has the ability to cut, wound, and hurt our enemy, the devil. (Read Armor of God Eph. 6)
It’s not the Bible lying on your coffee table that makes the enemy flee, but it is the Word of God hidden in your heart, activated by the power of the Holy Spirit, and spoken in an appropriate situation.
*The Word by itself doesn’t make us free. It is the Word we know and speak that will deliver us (Jn. 8:32).
Why is the Word so effective? It’s because it is the WORD of God. It has authority, because it is indeed the WORD of God.
*God’s Word supersedes all authority of the church, of reason, of intellect, and even of Satan himself.
*It is the Holy Spirit that wields this Word as it is spoken in faith.
*Speaking God’s Word in faith brings the Holy Spirit into action.
In Luke 4, when Jesus was tempted of the devil for forty days, it was the Word of God, that Jesus used to defeat the enemy in the time of His temptation.
*Jesus constantly met His temptation by quoting from God’s Word as He repeatedly stated the phrase, “It is written.”
Likewise, the Christian soldier must avail himself of God’s Word by placing it in his heart, so that the Holy Spirit may bring it forth at the appropriate time to accomplish a complete and total victory. It’s yours.
Thank You Jesus–that through You – We Fight FROM Victory—-not For Victory. Amen! (see 1 John 4:4)
Read MorePsalm 23:1-3 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved and memorized Psalms. King David’s personal experience as a shepherd gave him unique training to be king and special insight into God’s role as our Good Shepherd.
These first three verses highlight God’s gentle and generous care for us.
- Green pastures mean plenty to eat without the constant struggle of moving from place to place in search of food.
- The still waters provide abundant water without the fear that fast-moving streams might evoke.
- The paths of righteousness are the safe and beneficial routes God leads us in life.
God’s spiritual sheep enjoy all these blessings in abundance through God’s Word (our food), the Holy Spirit (our water) and God’s righteous and beneficial way of life.
Lord, Thank You for being our Shepherd and help us to allow You to Shepherd us each and every hour through your voice, your word and Christian relationships. Amen
Read MoreHave you ever felt like you have been obedient to the Lord for something He called you to do and all you get are more roadblocks?
This is the way Moses felt. When Moses went to tell Pharaoh to release the people because God said so, Pharaoh simply got angry and made the people make bricks without straw.
Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and You have not rescued Your people at all. – Exodus 5:23
*Moses caught the blame for this from the people.
*Moses was just learning what obedience really means in God’s Kingdom.
*You see Moses had not even begun to release plagues upon Egypt.
*He hadn’t even gotten started yet in his calling, and he was complaining about his circumstances.
Why would God tell Moses that He is going to deliver them and not do it?
It was all in timing. God never said when He was going to deliver. He just said He would.
In the next chapter, we find Moses arguing with God about not being capable of the job God had called him to:
But Moses said to the Lord,
“If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and He commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 6:12-13)
God had a good reason for His delays. He said,
“And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it” (Ex. 7:5).
God not only wanted the people of Israel but also the Egyptians to know Him. It would be the greatest show of God’s power on earth.
God often causes delays in our lives that we cannot understand. Sometimes it seems our obedience is not getting rewarded.
Jesus said He learned obedience through the things He suffered (see Heb. 5:8).
Imagine that – Jesus having to learn obedience.
What does that say for you and me?
Sometimes God’s delays are simply because He wants more glory in the situation, more recognition, more Christ-likeness in you and me through greater patience and obedience.
Faint not, for the promise may yet come.
Are you in need of hope today? Will you choose to remember God’s faithfulness, love, and mercy, despite the despair and destruction around you? Today, dare to hope.
Dear Lord, I want to dare to hope, but life around me seems uncertain and tentative. Will You help me remember Your faithfulness, love and mercy? Thank You in advance for what You are going to do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Read MoreWhat is the key to success and victory when the enemies aligned against us seem too great to overcome? It may seem unlikely, but here is one answer: giving thanks.
Revelation 12:11 tells us we defeat the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. What might that testimony sound like? “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
Thanksgiving is our song for every battle. It is a key to our victory!
Do you see the tremendous potential of giving thanks to release God’s miracle-working power in our lives?
A beautiful example of this principle is in the story of the ten lepers who met Jesus in Luke 17, verses 12–19….
- All ten lepers were cleansed.
- All were healed physically.
- But something completely extra—and the most important thing of all—happened to the one man who returned to give Him thanks.
Jesus said to him in verse 19: “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”
So you see, there was an important difference between the nine who were healed physically and the tenth who came back to give God thanks. He was not merely healed physically, but he was saved. His soul was saved. He was brought into a right eternal relationship with God.
The same is true in our lives. Giving thanks for blessings already received sets the seal of permanence upon them.
Lord, I want to commit myself fully to this principle of giving thanks in all situations. I offer my thanksgiving as my victory song to You, O Lord. Amen.
Read More
*We will be confronted with suffering, pain grief and trouble.
*We must be prepared.
**We prepare by spending time with God.
***Our brokenness allows God to work.
Psalm 51:16–17 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
What is David the psalmist telling us there?
Surely he’s telling us that first and foremost God is not interested in externals.
*Sacrifice and offerings are not necessarily things that God does not want, but they are things that He does not want first and foremost.
*And if that’s all there is in our lives – the external practices of religion – then God takes no pleasure in them.
*God looks below the surface
*God looks to the heart
*God looks to the motives
*God looks to the attitude.
*And it says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Those are strange words to our ears today.
What does it mean that God desires a broken spirit?
*Does He want to crush us?
*Does He want to beat us down?
*Does He want to humiliate us?
No, I’m sure that’s not it.
What is a broken spirit?
I think it’s a spirit that has come totally to the end of itself.
*All independence, all self-will and all self-righteousness have been purged out. (A Bankrupt Spirit)
We’ve come to the place where we have no hope but in God; we’ve come to the end of our own resources.
We have no claims upon God, we simply turn to Him for His mercy and His faithfulness, not trusting our own merits, but clinging only to God.
God can create a pure heart in anyone!
Therefore repent and ask God to make you a new creature and live for him and him alone…
Isaiah 42:16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them. AMEN
Read More
John 17:18 “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”
We are not from the world. Through the new birth, we come from God and should constantly remind ourselves of this.
It is not good to be too “at home” in the world.
We are in the world but are not of the world.
Great men and women of God have always had this attitude.
Christ Followers are not to isolate themselves from the world.
*Jesus did not isolate himself from the world, rather He came to the world to hang out with the sinners of the world.
The primary reason that God chooses to use those who are nothing by the world’s standards, is so no one else can take credit for the great things that are accomplished.
If the Lord used those who had it “all together” in the natural, then they would share the glory that rightfully belongs to God alone.
But when the Lord works miraculously through someone who obviously has no talent or ability, then everyone says, “This must be God.”
Not only does this keep others from misdirecting the glory that belongs to God, but it keeps the person who God uses from swelling up with pride.
One of Satan’s greatest weapons against someone who is being used by God is to tempt them to think that the Lord is using them because they possess some superior virtue.
God uses “nobodies.” If we think we’ve become “somebody” (in our flesh), then we will cease being used.
*He will not share His glory with anyone else (Isa. 42:8).
For what is Jesus praying?
*To make them so clean in all aspects of their lives that they can draw people to God. For God will never force ANYTHING on us, for like the angels in Heaven we to have free will.
We are not here just to be good people. We are here to work to advance God’s Kingdom!!!!
Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your commands, and I shall keep them to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep Your law. Help me stay on the path of Your commandments, for in them I delight. Amen.
Read MoreTo know the mysteries Christ has for us.
We can know the mysteries Christ has for us and they will be revealed as we dig deeper into the Word.
* It doesn’t matter where you are God has a plan for your life. God sees all- no matter what.
Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
“Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests;
In Psalms 43:3-4 — The truth is God’s Word; the Light is your understanding of it.
The psalmist cries out for an understanding of the Word as he reads it and for light, which breaks out of these marvelous promises to encourage and strengthen his heart.
1 Corinthians 4:6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.
* So many Christians over-complicate the Bible by looking for hidden meanings, praying for “special revelations” or “new understandings”, or they think you have to go to Bible college to understand God’s Word.
*The Bible is written in a way that speaks clearly to anyone who is seeking the truth–you don’t have to be an “expert”. The most important thing is to OBJECTIVELY seek the truth, keep in mind the context of the passage as well as the entirety of the Bible, and allow the Holy Spirit to give understanding.
To the Ephesians he said, “When you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:3).
Romans 15:4 Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
*Scripture speaks in numerous passages about “our light and momentary troubles that are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Lord,” Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” Col. 3:16 Amen
Read a Proverb a day for a year if you are hungry to receive additional Godly Wisdom, Knowledge, Discernment and the will of God for you.
God wants us to be intentional about our thankfulness every day.
God wants us to develop this spiritual habit, one that is reflected in the life of a radical believer.
The truth is, the more deeply you understand God’s love, the more grateful you’re going to be.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. That’s radical gratitude. In all circumstances give thanks, because it’s God’s will for you.
You can thank God in every circumstance because God is in control.
He can bring good out of evil. He can turn around the stupid mistakes you’ve made. No matter what happens, God isn’t going to stop loving you. There are a hundred things to be thankful for in any circumstance, even when the circumstance stinks.
Radical gratitude — being thankful in all circumstances — is God’s will because it creates fellowship. Gratitude always builds deeper relationships between you and other people and between you and God.
Whoever you want to get closer to, start expressing gratitude to that person.
If you’ve taken for granted your husband or your wife, or your parents or your friends, you need to start doing what you did when you first met them: Express gratitude. Write little notes of kindness and encouragement. Make calls or text during the day, just to tell him or her that you’re thankful. Do the things you did at first. The reason you’ve lost that lovin’ feeling is because you stopped doing the things that created that lovin’ feeling early on, and you take each other for granted.
Do you want to build your small group? Don’t just go to small group. During the week, text them, email them, call them, write them. Say, “I’m grateful for you, and here’s why.” You’ll find that the more grateful you are for your group, the more your group will bond.
The Bible tells us to “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
As you build others up, you’ll find that God builds into your life as well through your deep relationships with him and others.
Lord, give me a deeper respect for you and the encouragement you instruct us to give others in building up of your body. Help me to have a heart of gratitude in all circumstances. Amen
Read More