Jealousy, Envy, Dislike, Hatred

"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?  Do not even the tax gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only,what do you do more than others. Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48

Do you suffer from any of the four conditions mentioned in my title? Maybe someone has a gift or talent you wish you had. Perhaps a person is smaller than you and you struggle with your weight. It could be someone has a personality that just rubs you the wrong way. Maybe you just struggle with being able to like someone because you are so different. Whatever it is know that we are to love, rejoice with others, be happy for the success of others. 

When a person starts comparing themselves that is a tool in the enemies arsenal to bring you down. How can you expect to walk in the spirit if you are acting fleshly? It is impossible. Satan will rob your joy, your peace, and make you start having wrong thinking patterns. Love, true Christian love,  means just that. Love. Period. How can you say you are loving and walking with Christ if you can not truly let envy, jealousy, dislike, and hatred go? 

Your assignment,and hopefully you will accept it, is to capture wrong thinking and start making yourself love those you would rather not mess with. Ugliness attitudes should not find a home in your life. If you struggle, give it to God to transform you. That is His specialty. 

PRAYER: Lord just loving those who love me is no big deal but really trying to love those who humanly may annoy me is a job that can only be done through Christ. If I claim to know you I need to let earthly feelings of resentment, hurt, anger, envy and many others go. I give any and all of this to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

An Apple A Day

"Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble;thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."Psalm 32:7

Most of us are familiar with the little saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away."  There is some truth in that eating healthier and less junk foods tends to keep you from getting diseases. Similarly a Bible verse a day helps keep the devil away. When we get caught up with everything else no matter how important and forget to have a quiet time alone with the Lord you are not armed for what lies ahead.

How can you make sure you are having your 'spiritual apple' each and every day? First decide just how important God really is to you. Is the only time you do anything remotely spiritual on Sunday and maybe not even then? To be prepared for each day we have to stay spiritually 'healthy' by taking a good dose of God's word to see us through trials that are bound to come. The enemy wants to distract you with Facebook, the morning show, the newspaper, and just plain staying in bed. None of these are wrong in themselves but if they are your priority then maybe God has taken a back seat somehow in your life.

I am not here to judge your spiritual life or lack thereof but to make you rethink just how 'healthy' in Christ you really are. Are you prepared with His word? 

PRAYER:  I realize I can't get by letting a minister or priest spoon feed me the word of God one day a week. I need the discipline to make it happen daily on my own. Help me to reorder my daily activities to really make you number one. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Insecurity, Acceptance, Being Loved

For the Lord shall be your confidence and shall keep your foot from being taken. Proverbs 3:26

Here it is my birthday week and I am having all this fun with friends that I am blessed with and I did something I should not have done. I noticed one 'unlike' on my Facebook Devotion Page entitled 'God's Lemonade Stand'.  I was crushed. Everyone wants to be 'liked' and especially when it comes to someone liking what you write, it is crushing to be 'unliked'. That is what is bad about the whole Facebook thing. Anyway, I reminded myself that my identity is not from my 'likes' but it is from the Lord. I have to sear that in my brain. But why my birthday week? 

Probably all of us have gone through some sort of insecurity be it from your past or whatever. You just have to remember that God is your best friend. Don't let the things of this world and your Facebook 'likes' or 'unlikes' run your life. Your life is based on Jesus, not things where your value and worth are from superficial things. If you struggle from this, let God hear your heart. Know that He is your source. Run to Him. 

Today know that God loves you. Pray for those people who you may have trouble liking or even loving. Cast your cares,doubts, fears upon Him. 

PRAYER: Lord I love you and I thank you that even if the whole world ran out on me you are always there. Thank you that you love me. In Jesus' name. Amen. 

The Roller Coaster Drop

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.2 Corinthians 5:8

I am what you could call a 'coaster enthusiast'. I just absolutely love roller coasters the scarier the better. Thing is, even though I love them, it is always a little frightening going on one for first time and not anticipating that first drop at top of a very high, and often times steep, track. Then whoosh off you plummet.

Even though as a believer in Christ you know not to fear death some people often wonder what it will be like. Similar to what to expect on those roller coaster drops, many do not really know. Why be concerned? If you love Jesus and have asked Him into your heart once you die suddenly you will be in heaven. No more worries about earthly concerns but just enveloped in the peacefulness of heaven. 

Do you know that if you breathed your last breath, got hit head on and died, had a heart attack, sudden onset of cancer or another disease that you have the assurance of heaven? It is not about church membership or a particular denomination. It is not about how good your are. It is about knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and savior and asking Him to be Lord of your life. 

PRAYER: I pray today for those people reading this who may be uncertain of their salvation. Satan would have us worry and even deceive us into thinking we are okay when in reality it is time to repent and ask Jesus to take the controls. Bring conviction on those who need to let Jesus be Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.

This movie may still be playing in some areas. If you get a chance go see it or rent it. http://90minutesinheaventhemovie.com

Fill Er Up!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

For those baby boomers reading this you can probably remember when your parents got fuel at a gas station that is was fully manned by attendants who came to fill up your car, check your oil, and wash your windshield. Those were the days. Now of course it is all do it yourself often to the point that people forget to check their oil and burn out their engines. 

In our walk with the Lord each day we can go to the 'filling station' and get filled up with the love of Christ for power to get through our day ahead. This 'filling station' is of course the word of God so we can strengthen ourselves for any battles that may be coming our way. We can be filled up and nourished on the words in the Bible and it is much more effective than seeing us through our day than a steady diet of the morning news.

Are you making time in your day to go to God's 'filling station'?

PRAYER: I want to wake up each day and have my heart filled to overflowing with delight in you and your words. Help me to have discipline to read my Bible and not get caught up watching television news and the all of a sudden have no time left.  In Jesus' name. Amen.

Rejected? Snubbed? Move On!

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44

Bible teacher Joyce Meyer has said "not everyone is going to like you". No matter how much a person may know the scripture about loving like Christ loves and should know better, in some cases, there will be those who turn ktheir back on you. They may unfriend you on Facebook, never acknowledge emails or texts, and you can't figure out what you have done to cause this immense separation. They simply refuse to be your friend. It could sadly be politics that does it, which has happened allot since 2009. Regardless we are commanded to love, forgive, and be kind, so why don't we? 

      Do we have a 'right' to dislike or hate someone? Not really according to the Bible. That includes murderers and rapists and a host of degenerates. We are to love, show kindness, pray, forgive. I once heard a story about a woman who witnessed in prison to her daughters killer. Now that would be a tall order. Most people I know who have dealt with tragedies are pretty angry at the person responsible for stealing away their loved one but true freedom comes in forgiveness. Remember what Jesus uttered as He was being crucified hanging between two thieves on their own crosses. In the account in Luke 23:33-34 it says "When  they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves."

If you are dealing with anger, hate, and and a lack of love for someone Jesus can set you free from that if you truly want to be. You know deep down hate and dislike is not the solution. If you are on the receiving end of the dislike just let it go and forgive. 

PRAYER: Lord if I say I love you but then hate others I am lying. Help me not be two faced. Even those hard to love help me try to love them through you with your power inside of me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Mistaken Identity

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

Recently in our moms prayer group we were blessed with a new mom entering our fold. I had missed her first day there so did not get her name right. I thought it was this other lady with a name starting with the same letter so sent her an email to welcome her. She probably thought I was nuts. Anyway I found out my mistake when I finally met the new lady and said "whoops". 

Humanly we may forget names of people we have not seen in awhile or who we even just met.  God never forgets us or our name. We are special to Him. He formed us in our mother's womb it says in Psalm 139. Never does he drift off in a daze or zone out and forget about us or our name. We are vitally important to Him. Probably an important thing to try to develop is learning and remembering names. School teachers have to do it so there must be a good way to do so. Listening is good. Not zoning out is good,I am talking to myself here. 

Just know that God loves you my friend. He anxiously awaits hearing from you in prayer each day. Prayer is simply just having a chat with God. No formalities needed. You can pray while you drive but keep your eyes open if you do. You can pray wherever you go.  Let Him hear from you today. He already knows you. Do you know Him?

PRAYER: It says in your word that even the very hairs of our head are numbered. You care about each of us so much Lord and call us by name. Thanks for your unconditional love for me even when I may ignore you. In Jesus' name. Amen.