This post is based on the introduction of my message last night at FOCUS!

Power is attractive and alluring! Most of us believe in God and we believe that He is powerful and so we are attracted to Him.  We think that if we can in some way figure out how to make His power work on our behalf, then we will have it made.

When you stop and think about it for just a minute – it is really amazing to think about the things that will motivate a person to pray. When a woman learns that her husband is interested in another woman – she will pray.  When a man learns that he is about to lose his job – he will pray.  When a student is about to take a test – they will pray.  When a child wants something that they cannot have – they pray!  When we get to the place where we have exhausted our resources, then we will make and take the time talk with God in the hope that we might manipulate Him to do what we cannot.

These acts of manipulation can best be viewed as religion. And it is sad but true that most of the people in our world today have religion, but not relationship. Religion is the human attempt to harness or manipulate the power of God!  Our lives are always under a constant threat and we want power to be able to stand up to and against those threats.  We know that even when life is good, it is never completely safe and so we try to utilize the one power source that we know of – GOD!

The thing that we need to understand is that God cannot be and is not going to be manipulated. But we don’t need to manipulate God, because God already has our best interest at heart.  God loves you and has a plan for your life! That is more than just a catchy little phrase.  It is truth – God’s truth that flows out of His mouth, through His Word and into and through our lives!

Lay your religion down and stop trying to manipulate God! Pick up a real and meaningful relationship and trust God to work as He sees fit on your behalf.  Follow Him and be obedient to what He teaches in His Word and He will use even the bad for good in your life as you love Him!

We need to raise our standards! This is a thought that I have been wrestling with for the past couple of weeks and I am not so sure that we can raise what we don’t have.  I think that somewhere along the path of living life that a lot of us have forgotten about, thrown out or just left somewhere on the side of the road – our standards.  Standards that were passed on to us half-hearted by our parents are standards that will not even exists in our children’s lives.  Now I am not talking about rules and regulations that are set up by man to make him feel better about himself.  I am talking about living life by a better plan and for a higher purpose than just checking off another day.

Take a moment to think about your life! Are you where you want to be?  Are you where God created and gifted you to be?  Are you doing what you enjoy and the things that bring fulfillment to your spirit?  Are you doing the things that God created and gifted you to do?  Now whichever way you answer these questions – now answer this one:  Is there any room for improvement? Can you do it better?  How can you raise your standards so that God gets more glory and you get more blessing?

Answer this question with whatever change is needed in you life and daily living and you will be amazed at the difference that it will make almost immediately! Start working to raise your standards at home, work and everywhere that life may take you.  Remember:  God has given you this life as a gift and what you do with this life is your gift back to Him.  Give Him your very best!  G3!  (GIVE GOD GLORY!)

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!