What an amazing thought: God created me and is working in me, giving me the desire and power to do what pleases Him and what blesses me. What an awesome God! Our Creator has expectations for us to be successful and blessed. Our Creator is given glory when we accomplish what we were created for! You are not an accident and you are not here as a spiritual being living a human experience by some randomness.
Paul tells is in Philippians: “Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” Philippians 2:12-13
Work hard, obey God and remember that God is at work in and through you!
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”Romans 5:3-5
Fillerup!
No one likes trials and troubles, but everyone has them and while we don’t like them, it helps to know that when we do, there is a purpose. The Scripture teaches us that we can rejoice and be happy when we face the challenges of life, because the challenges are helping us to develop and grow endurance.
Endurance is the ability to remain active and productive even when facing adverse conditions. It is the picture of something that lasts, regardless of time. As we face trials and troubles, God is using the problems to develop endurance in our lives. We can rejoice because this endurance develops character.
Character is the moral and ethical traits that make you uniquely who you are. Someone has said that character is who you are when no one else is looking. As we endure trials, we develop character. And our character as it grows and develops produces hope.
Hope is a feeling that things are going to be better. Our hope is in our salvation and the relationship that it makes possible with our Creator. This relationship is based in the love of a Creator for His creation. This love is grown in the relationship of trust, which is strengthened in hope of an even brighter tomorrow. This day and every day after this, is possible, because of our relationship with, to and through the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with the amazing and blessed love of our most awesome friend and Creator…
Take some time today, even in the midst of challenges to let Him fill you up with His Spirit!
“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” Mark 8:35
That’s LIfe!
This is one of those powerful lessons in the Scriptures that we often fly over and miss. “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.” Life is not something that we hang onto, Life is something that we live and in the living of life, we experience life. Life with all of it’s ups and downs is living and living is much more than just existing.
The key to really living is not trying to live life, but trying to give life, because when we give our life away to love others as we have been loved, then we really begin to live. The good news is that God loves each of us and has an amazing plan for our lives.
Don’t miss life, because you have gotten distracted by trying to make a living. Live life by giving your life to your Creator by serving and making life better for others. You will find that life is a whole lot more fun, when you focus on more than just existing…
Michael Joe Harvell 