I love to smile and I love to see other people smile.  Some days it is hard to turn the corners of our mouth upward, so I thought maybe my new favorite song and video might help.  Hope you enjoy Kirk Franklin & Steve Harvey and the movie you will be trying to think of as you are watching is called “Coming to America.”

I love the Scriptures and I consider myself very blessed to be able to read them and have the Spirit give me some understanding of how they apply to my life and everyday living.

Consider just a few verses from Ephesians 1 and let them encourage, motivate and challenge you to live a life for God’s glory!

“3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” 

God, Who is love, loves us so much that He gave us His most precious gift – the gift of His one and only Son.  And with the gift of Jesus, God has blessed us not just with a handful, but with every spiritual blessing.  Be sure and notice that these are in the heavenly places in Christ.  God chose you before you were born.  In fact, God chose you before the foundations of this world that you live in.  He chose you to be holy and blameless before Him and then sent His Son to make it all possible!

In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Again, don’t miss out of the reality that God is love and in His love, which is what and who He is, He predestined, planned in advance, willed that we would be His children, not because we deserve or have earned it, but because He is God and it is His will.  It is God’s amazing grace that allows our lives to praise Him and it is this grace that He has given to us freely in Jesus, His beloved Son that enables us to live supernatural and powerful lives.

7  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

Our redemption, our value, our worthiness comes not through what we have done or have not done, but through the shed blood of His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ.  We have been forgiven of all our trespasses, sins and failures according to the riches of His grace, which he lavished and poured out freely upon our lives.  This is a mystery of His will that we could not understand without His wisdom and insight.  Again, because we need reminding – this is not something we have earned or deserved, but because of God’s kind intention motivated by the reality that He is love.

“In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

As if all of this was not enough, God also blesses us with an inheritance.  He has given us a purpose greater than we could have ever given ourselves.  He has a will for our lives and helps us to understand that our hope is in Christ and our lives lived in fulfillment are for the purpose of giving Him praise and glory of which only He is worthy!

Live your life in Him and for Him – you will be glad you did!

There are three things that I have to remind myself of constantly!  It is an everyday challenge and often a moment by moment challenge to make sure that my heart and mind is focused in the right place.  I would love to tell you that I automatically get this right, but the truth is: This is one tough battle.

Continual Reminder #1 – This Is Not About Me!  Self help is a good thing, but it is self-sacrifice that is key when it comes to my growing spiritually the way that God created me to grow.  One of the biggest temptations I face is the temptation to think it’s about me.  Bottom Line:  It is not about me, never has been and never will be!

Continual Reminder #2 – This Is Not About Others!  This is where it really gets confusing, because if it’s not about me, then it must be about others – right???  Wrong! It involves others, but it’s not about others.  The cold hard truth is:  It’s about so much more than meeting needs.  Often times we busy ourselves with the activity of trying to meet others needs and convince ourselves that it is not about us because we are focused on them, but our whole purpose in being focused on them, is often so that we can feel good about ourselves.

This life that we live is about responding to the calling that God has placed upon our lives by using the gifts that He has given us and the shape that He has provided us with, so that we can grow to touch and make a difference in the lives of others, but not to make us feel or look better.  It is all for His glory!

Continual Reminder #3 – This Is About God!  You were made by God and God made you for Himself!  Life will not ever make any sense, until we understand and accept this amazing truth.  The purpose of your life is to live for God’s glory – period.

I Corinthians 2:12-13 teaches:  “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

Yep – it’s a totally different life that God has in store for us and I am in need constant reminding!