Ministers have a lot of different jobs. One of the jobs that we have as ministers is to teach, motivate and encourage faithfulness.  I have noticed that it is getting harder and harder to help people get their lives to a place of consistent and growing faithfulness.  We talk a good game, but we usually come up way short of where we need to be.

I have discovered that everybody is faithful to something.  The challenge for the minister is to help people to be faithful to the right something or a better way of putting it would be:  To help people be faithful to the right someone!

Faithfulness does not just happen! Faithfulness takes work – hard work!  Each of us should take some time to think about the faithfulness that Jesus has expressed to us.  Think about the fact that Jesus gave His life so that we might have life!  Does He deserve our faithfulness?  Could we grow in our faithfulness to and for Him?  You bet we could and you know that we should!  Let His faithfulness to you motivate you to be faithful to Him!

As children most of us learned a simple and powerful little song – Jesus Loves Me! It says:  “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”  Little ones to Him belong, we are weak, but He is strong!”  “Yes – Jesus loves me!”  “Yes – Jesus loves me!”  “Yes – Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so!”

Jesus does love you and me and because of this amazing love – He deserves our faithfulness! Remember:  Faithfulness does not just happen!  It is going to take hard work on your part, but if you will give yourself to that work and purpose, it will make more of a difference than you could ever dream or realize!  What can you do right now in this moment that will help you to be more faithful to Jesus?  Now – Do it!

I am pretty active with the use of Twitter, Facebook and mjharvell.com. There are a lot of people that are critical of the internet and there are a lot of things about the internet that can be dangerous, but there are also a lot of things that can be good!

Let’s start with Twitter! Twitter allows the people that use it to share a message about what they are up to or thinking in 140 characters or less.  You get to select who you will follow and anyone that wants to – can make the choice to follow you.  I am following a lot of different ministers, some church members and a handful of professional people.  And I am being followed by a small assortment of different people.  I can use my phone to get a quick glance at what is going on in people’s days or I can use my computer to catch up on what everyone is up to.   Many times it will give me a thought that opens up all kinds of doors for the Holy Spirit to speak and minister into my life.  The other neat thing about Twitter is that if you don’t have the internet on your phone you can have updates sent from the people that you are interested in sent via text messaging!  Everything is out in the open for everyone to see, so this is a pretty safe way of sharing who you are and what you are up to.

Let’s Look At Facebook! My Twitter updates my Facebook and is also posted on my blog page!  Facebook allows you to connect with family and friends and have an ongoing and without end conversation.  Once you start Facebook you begin to find and be found by friends and once you are accepted or accept a person as a friend, you can see their post about what they are up to and they can see your post about what you are up to.  I have found it to be very useful for facilitating conversations and for sharing information about life and needs that we might have that we would like for others to lift up in prayer!

My blog page – mjharvell.com is a place for me to expound on some of the things that God is teaching me. I try to write articles that will encourage and motivate people to live as Christ Followers!  I have people that follow me on Twitter, are my friend on Facebook and take the time to read my blog from all around the world.  It is amazing how all of these gifts allow us to remove time and space and have almost immediate contact and connection.

People can and will use these things for evil, but you and I can make the choice to use these things for good! I encourage you to check out Twitter, Facebook and Mjharvell.com – and figure out how God can use them to bless you and allow you to use them to bless others!

Most of the people that I know in life want it their way! Most of us grew up when “Burger King” promised that you could come in and order however you wanted and they would prepare it “Your Way!”  When we were just babies we wanted our way and we would cry, jump up and down, and even bang our head against the wall to get our way!  Now that we have grown up – we still want our way and we are determined to get it one way or another!

But I want to challenge you to stop and think for just a moment today! Is there a better way than “YOUR WAY?”  For those of us that are Christ Followers, we know that there is a better way than our way and we know that our way only gets in the way of the better way that our Creator has for us, but still we battle to get our way!

God has a way for your life and it is probably much different than the way that you think you want or deserve. God’s way is to take you to a place of growing, fulfillment and blessing.  God’s way is to use the bad stuff of life for your good as you trust Him, yield to His way and love Him.

If you knew that there was a better way than your way – would you take it? God has a better way, but we have to be willing to give up our way to grab a hold of His way.  It is not easy!  In fact it is a continuous, moment by moment, never ending struggle!  But it is a struggle worth our enduring!

In the very next moment – consider and make the choice to live God’s way! And try to do that with as many moments as you can today and at the end of the day – you will be glad you did!