Uplift People, Don’t Tear Them Down

We need to be more aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledging their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everyone wins

We are living in a self-serving, self-centered, and self-obsessed modern day rush-rush society filled with negativity and the constant tearing down of others. If people really want to differentiate themselves in this world, they need to be people-oriented and start to Focus on building others up,

We are created to be relational beings, it’s our greatest privilege to enjoy companionship with the people who truly matter in our lives. How can we be a source of encouragement to everyone around us?

Here a few simple ways to uplift others

1. Esteem others higher.

Leaders esteem others hight than themselves. Have high regards, great respect, and favorable thoughts of the people around them of trust and influence.

2. Be wise with your speech.

Communicate more effectively by thinking before you speak. If there’s a word that’s more appropriate in a conversation, use it. Whoever you are speaking to, start with a praise use something like, “You look so good today.” Never confront others. Instead, point out on how both of you can make things better. Speak at the same level as the people around you, giving them respect. There’s no need to cone in with an authoritarian voice to get your message heard.

3. Be encouraging.

Encouragement is an expression and assurance of one’s hope and future in words, presence, and sincerity,

4. Be quick to forgive.

When others make a mistake, be quick to forgive and forget; releasing them from guilt and shame that may take root on one’s heart when not dealt with over time. The Bible says, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

5. Be understanding.

Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand. Understanding starts by being an active listener (not planning a reply as one is speaking), asking intelligent questions to gain further insight, and being accepting of what the other is sharing. Then, answer without condemning. Or don’t answer at all and decide to a listening ear,

6. Zero gossip.

Keep other’s secrets. Never speak anything that causes unnecessary hurt to others by speaking unclaimed rumors behind their back.

7. Share knowledge.

Sharing knowledge helps others to learn, discover, and understanding things that are interesting. They have immediate application for better result in our work and life, it edifies our soul, and improves our daily conversations.

8. Stay humble.

Humility and maturity are synonymous. A dignified person accomplishes much, but brags little. They are secure in their standing without needing to make noise, often treating everyone with respect, regardless of their position.

9. Be positive.

Positive thinking goes beyond having the drive and motivation for personal success. Positive thinking is explicit, definite, and outspoken. It’s contagious. Building people up with your positiveness, allowing them to be open for better things to come.

Never push your beliefs on others. If you choose a lifestyle, don’t expect everyone else need to follow your lifestyle.. It’s a “I’m doing this, so therefore everyone else needs to be doing it.” Stance.

Above all choose love. Be Patient, And treat everyone that way you would like to be treated.

What Scriptures Say About The Power Of Prayer

Prayer Is Powerful

God, is His mercy and kindness continues to answer the prayers of His children. Occasionally, however, it seems as though there were some confusion at what prayer is and what it is not.

Imagine that you are on the Family Feud. Your family is amp up and excited about the prospect of winning $10,000 and possibly a new car. The first survey question is presented to both families by Steve Harvey.

“Give me Sarah give me Bob. The top 12 questions on the board? What kind of question resulted in so many different answers? Okay let’s get to the question. we asked 100 random customers exiting a Chick-fil-A this question: “What is prayer?”

The Bible is filled with scripture on prayer, if you look at there are 367 specific Bible verses about prayer. This does not include the word “ask” when it is used as a substitute for prayer,

What are the truths about prayer according to the Bible.?

Prayer is simply communication between us and God. The Lord’s prayer is a great outline for us to use to structure our prayers. Jesus use this outline, according to Luke’s Gospel, to teach His disciples to pray.

The Lord’s prayer begins with a call to honor Him.

Matthew 6:9, in this manner, therefore, pray; “Our Father in Heaven Hallowed be Your Name.”

Next, we are encouraged to prioritize His will over our own will.

Matthew 6:10, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

It’s perfectly fine to ask God to help me or physical needs.

Matthew 6:11, Give us this day our daily bread.

It’s about to get real in our prayers. We get to the point in the prayer where we ask God for forgiveness of our sins. This is also a time where we willingly and intentionally forgive others.

Matthew 6:12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

The world is getting darker and darker. We need God’s mercy and grace to keep it on the narrow Path. When we pray, we need to ask Him to keep us from the evil one.

We can finish our prayers with a timer praise, adoration, and thanksgiving to our King.

Matthew 6:13, Or yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Prayer is powerful! Fortunately, it has nothing to do with our spiritual strength but with God’s unlimited power. Here are a few examples of powerful prayers that are recorded in the Bible:

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for 3 1/2 years. Again he prayed, and the Heaven’s gave rain, and the earth produced crops.

James 5:17-18

And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down to go down ten degrees; No, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

2 Kings 20:10-11

So they took away the Stone. Thank you just looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet were wrapped in strips of linen. ans cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off your grave clothes and let him go.”

John 11 41-44

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and seeing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were open and everyone’s chains were loosed

Acts 16:25-26

Gratefully, God is still in the business of healing and doing miracles.

Many of us have forgotten how to pray, And earnestly seek God. Or have doubt and unbelief in our hearts.

I was diagnosed with bladder cancer 10 years ago. I had a prayer group praying for me when I was diagnosed. I had surgery and had a grapefruit sized tumor removed from my bladder. The cancer doctor told me I would be dead in one year. I had young children I did not accept that prognosis. This prayer group and I prayed seven nights a week for my healing. After some chemo treatments I was sent home and was told to come back in a few weeks. Slowly but surely my cancer was healed within the year I had no sign that I even had cancer. God is awesome!

Why He healed me and not others, I do not know. But I knew God had a destiny that I had not fulfilled yet.

Confess to one another, therefore, your faults, your slips, your false steps, your offenses you are sins and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored (to a spiritual tone of mind and heart). The earnest heart, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available (the dynamic on its working.

James 5:16

A man with leprosy came and kneeled before Him and said, “ Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touch the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.

Matthew 8:2-3

Psalm 30:2 is known as the scripture for healing, “Lord my God, I called to you for help, and You healed me.”

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call on the elders of the church to pray over them and anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. and a prayer offered in faith will make this sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have send they will be forgiven.

James 5:14:15

This is a particularly thorny issue. There are families who have prayed and received the blessing of children . Others are still praying,

Here are three biblical instances where God intervened in times of infertility.

Did Abraham prayed to God, and God healEd Abimilek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again.

Genesis 20:17

No Sarah was childbirth because she was not able to conceive. The Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised and bore son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him,

Genesis 11:30; 21:1-2

In her jeep anguish Hannah Prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And he made vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servants misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor what ever be used on his head.” So in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying “Because I asked the Lord for him.,

1 Samuel 1:10-11; 20

The daily grind of life could easily wipe us out physically and emotionally. That is one of the reasons why we must spend some time talking to God as often as possible. During prayer, we unburden our hearts and our transformed by God’s grace. God gives us strength. Prayer is a powerful weapon,

Ephesians 3:16 says, I pray out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Inner in your inner being.

The power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. – Max Lucado.

Spiritual Warfare

Sometimes it is hard to truly comprehend a threat that comes from things that are not seen. However, God warns us that the threat of spiritual ware fare is very real and to arm ourselves which what He has given us.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against authorities, and against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divine power to destroy strongholds We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. -2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

Be sober minded by watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring Lion, seeking someone to devour. -1 Peter 5-8.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

As it said in Ephesians 6:12, our struggle is ultimately against “spiritual forces of evil,” meaning the real battle is the spiritual warfare of good vs evil. There is a spiritual war they is ongoing for the heart of people as the forces of evil want us to turn us away from God and separate us from Him. But for those with God throuyJesux, the battle is already one ad Christ overcame death with the resurrection. We must be born again of spirit with faith on Jesus to be saved from the “second” death of the spirit. – John 3.

If you remember that Jesus had walk in the desert for fourth 40 days. And He fought of the devil with the words written by His Father (The Bible). When the devil tried to tempt Jesus in the desert with food (turn that stone into bread. Jesus replied “man does no live by bread alone.”. And again when the devil told Jesus to throw Himself off the cliff, Jesus replied “You shall not tempt the Lord God. Jesus fought the devil by the word of God (The Bible).

The Bible tells to be watchful and guard our hearts against the iniquity of sin. The devil wanted Jesus to sin and He fought back with God’s words and prayer. Evil can only enter up when we allow it to live in our hearts, like a vampire who must be let into your house. The first step to engage in the grand spiritual warfare is recognizing it exists and to exam e your heart.

For in the Gospel of the righteousness of God is revealed -a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.

Romans 1:17

The Devil Is A Liar

Admittedly, the topic of Satan and spiritual warfare is one that some find challenging and evil difficult to consider. However, one must consider truth: bBy choosing to ignore that Satan exists and that his goal is to ruin us, we set ourselves up to fall victim to his ploys. In particular, this use of lies that makes us doubt God and His promises to us. In Hosea 4:6, it states, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge,”

The devil uses our mental space as his battlefield to wage war against us. One of his favorite tactics is to tell us lies and then speak them so convincingly that we hold them as truth. One of Satan’s strategies is present us with a worst-case scenario of our future in order to arouse fear in us. He can take advantage of our vulnerabilities and circumstances, and even use people to make us worry, instill hopelessness, and rob us of joy. However, by far the worst lie of the devil is his effort to convince us to believe him over God, and that our Father is no match for him. In addition to Satan’s deception toward Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Bible reveals other instances of the devil telling lies to God’s children through people or circumstances.

The Power of Prayer In Spiritual Warfare

Understand that there is a war and you are in it. Like it or not, all of us are caught up in the spiritual war that is taking place between good and evil. If you don’t engage in the war, you’ll still be affected by it and you’ll be much more vulnerable to evil than you would if you decided to fight as God call you to do. So be active; not passive. Engage in spiritual warfare with the confidence that God’s power working through you is greater than any evil working against you. Through prayer you can help prevent bad things from happening to people and usher good things into our lives and other peoples lives. Listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings for guidance about how best to pray for what’s needed, and then pray to advance God’s kingdom on and stop the spread of evil.

Tip: if we can pray outward- the truth is power of in our words and God says the power of life and death are in our words. If you are having a difficult time hearing God, the Bible says fasting and pray can help us hear from Gods more clearly. To listen to God as you refrain from eating consider combining a time of fasting with a practice of prayer.

Fasting is a way to humble yourself in the sight of God (Psalm 35:13; Ezra 8:221). King David said in Psalm 69:10 says “I humble my soul with fasting. You may find yourself relying on God more fully when you fast.

I suggest fasting for 3 days and keep close to God, by listening for His voice. If you have medical problems there is something called the Daniel fast that works great. I will add a chart on the next post. So keep an eye out for it.

The Full Assurance Of Hope

When we think about hope, it’s very often “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I hope it happens.” The full assurance and hope is not a finger crossing wish- it is described in Hebrews 6:11 as a “full assurance of hope.”

God desires for each one of us to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end. That our hopes are replaced with the hope that is found in Jesus.

The Christmas season is one that is filled with a message of hope that is found in Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world! Yet, for many this time of year it’s only a magnification of the hopelessness and despair they feel inside. Whether this hopelessness comes from the loss of a loved one or a commercial life view of Christmas, the Bible has the truths about this matter. Here are a few things the Bible says about hope:

1. Hope is Never Lost

Hope is crying out to be heard, seen, and experienced

Sometimes it’s difficult to see hope in a situation. But, the Bible says that true hope is unseen. And if we can only be hopeful for one thing, such as our salvation, which is also unseen, Then we can be hopeful for other things too. It’s just that simple.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes what they already have?

Romans 8:24

2. We can be Confident in Hope

We can find rest when we confidently hope on the Lord

We have now understood that hope is unseen. But if it’s unseen, can we trust it? After all, we can trust and care we sit in or the mug for our coffee into because it’s something we can see. Likewise, there are things that we can trust without seeing. We can crush that our insurance company will cover a certain amount of losses or that baking cookies will leave a wonderful aroma in our kitchen. We are confident in the end because these are legal and natural laws. In the same way, although we can’t see it, we can be full hope. Hope assured us that we can be confident in it because it is the law of God.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1

3. True Hope comes from God

True hope comes from God. He is the Creator of all things, including Hope

Sometimes we hope for things in which there is no hope. A car can’t bring through hope, but it can bring a feeling of contentment and exhilaration, but not real hope. Financial stability can’t bring through hope, it can bring security and a level of ease, but not true hope. A spouse can’t bring through hope because of spouses abilities are limited on what he or she can control. True hope comes from the One who created hope: God. True hope comes by trusting God even when circumstances are difficult. One way to know whether you are trusting God is whether you are both obeying his Word. Trust produces obedience, which produces hope, which results in joy and peace and that is the power of the Holy Spirit.

May the God of hope fill you with all the 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

4. Hope is a Gift

A wonderful result in hope is delivered by the Holy Spirit of God. He gives us the power to help and that is a demonstration of God’s love for us. Hope given by him works together to give us confidence, joy, peace, power and love. That is a true gift.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love – poured out into the hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:5

5. Hope Endures All

Hoping God will never lead us into despair, because He has a plan for all of us who look to Him. He has a future that is full of hope.

There is surely a future and a hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off

Proverbs 24:18

Utterly Exhausted

No one I know began this year on a full tank. Given the viciousness of the last two years most of us dragged ourselves across the finish line of 2022, many were frazzled, spent and running on adrenaline fumes.

In the new year we were still carrying the trauma, grief, shock, heaviness, and disbelief of the last two years. Whether we have processed the last years we have been put under more pressure, more stress, trying to catch up in all departments… every single one whether it be work, school, sports, relationships and life in general.

Though we may be aware, most of us are busier than we have been in years and we don’t stop to undo this emotions entanglement and trying to permanently wipe away the scarring wounds of the past two years. Whether emotional or physical. Our nervous systems have gotten used to being on high alert. While we are still trying to find a balance we are utterly exhausted our bodies and our souls are trying to get used to this new normal. No one is exempt including children and teens.

Despite it all we are still going, there will be days we will stumble and find ourselves struggling. We must be able to understand and be compassionate with others.

We all need a little tender loving care these days. Instead of trying to run to the finish line this year, tread gently and go slowly.

Amid the chaos, find small pockets of silence. Allow healing to come to your anxious soul. And most of all be kind. There’s no human being on earth who couldn’t use a little bit more kindness and compassion.