Following God’s Example

If we were, to be honest, we would admit that we are not always soft-hearted. We sometimes live with full-throat ambition and no shortage of self-interest. We can be impatient and sometimes insecure.

At times we are tempted to get in a better place, and we like exclusive privilege. We can be judgmental, insensitive, petty and resentful, and sometimes we can be cheap and stingy. But deep down, we want to be like Jesus. We want to love better.

Do you believe that loving like Jesus is more attainable than you might imagine? His teaching and example reveal at least five distinct and practical qualities of His love.

If you want to love like Jesus we are instructed to:

  • Become more mindful, and less detached.
  • Become more approachable and less exclusive.
  • Become more graceful, and less judgmental.
  • Become more emboldened, and less fearful.
  • Become more self-giving, and less self-absorbed.

Is this an exhaustive list of how Jesus loved? Of course it’s not. But it’s a way to get an earthly handle on this heavenly ideal of love. Time and time again, Jesus demonstrated these five qualities and spoke about them, not as unreachable ideal. These are doable.

Ephesians 5:1-7 reminds us to observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. And we are instructed to love in the same way.

Are you optimistic about getting better at loving like Jesus? This love isn’t illusive. It isn’t pie-in-the-sky. It isn’t out-of-reach nor regulated to untouchable Saints. It’s real. Jesus gives us practical steps to love in extraordinary ways. He calls us to embody the five qualities. Are they difficult! Yes. But are they insurmountable? No.

Will you and I fail as we try to live them out? Absolutely. But don’t be discouraged. For its in our failed attempts that we learn to better travel the most excellent way.

Gratitude – The Bold Value Of Thankfulness

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse. – Henry Van Dyke

What is Gratitude?

There are two qualities the belong in our basic definition of gratitude. The first is appreciation: you recognize that something is valuable to you, which has nothing to do with its monetary worth. The second quality is that gratitude is gratis; freely given to you.

Gratitude has two key components; “First, it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.“

In the second part of gratitude we recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves. “We acknowledge that other people gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.”

“Gratitude is essentially the recognition of unearned increments of value in one’s experience.”

Angeles Adrienne

Gratitude is a feeling that spontaneously emerges from within. However, it is not simply an emotional response; it is also a choice we make. We can choose to be grateful, or we can choose to be ungrateful – to take our gifts and blessings for granted. As a choice, gratitude is an attitude or disposition.

What is Gratefulness?

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy – because we will always want to have something else or something more,

Gratefulness is about being able to notice and appreciate the gift itself, amidst the up and downs. It’s about knowing in our molecules that life is a gift, no matter how empty we may feel.

Kristi Nelson

How do we Practice Gratefulness?

We cannot be grateful for all that a given moment brings us; yet, in any given moment, we can be grateful for something. The gift within the gift of any given moment is opportunity.

In order to practice gratefulness, we have to put little stop signs into our daily life. Unhurried, un-plugged summer days, which beautifully illustrates gratefulness. We should stop, look, and go into grateful living practice. As with the season of summer. If we stop and look at the beautiful things to be thankful for.

What is Grateful Living?

Grateful living is important in the world because in our constant pursuit of more and better, we can easily lose sight of the riches that lay right in front of us and within us.

Grateful living is a way of life which asks us to notice all that is already present and abundant – from the tiniest things of beauty to the grandest of our blessings – and in so doing, to take nothing for granted. We can learn to focus out attention on, and acknowledge, that life is a gift. Even in the most challenging times, living gratefully makes us aware of, and available to, the opportunities that are always available, opportunities to learn and grow, and to extend ourselves with care and compassion to others.

Grateful living is supported by daily practices, tool, habits of mind and behaviors that can be learned, translated and applied to any aspects of our lives, it is also nourished in community and In relationship.

Small, grateful acts every day can uplift us, and make a difference for others, and help change the world around us.

The Strongest Heart Have The Deepest Scars

I’m not sure about you, but I haven’t met a strong person that does not have a rough past in their lives, where they feel they have scars in the hearts.

Depending on the experiences you may have along the way, they can teach you a lot of lessons, leaving you with scars in your heart. Some being deeper than others.

Learning a life lesson doesn’t usually happen overnight. A life lesson takes some time to learn and some experiences are pleasurable, but others are awful, to the point you may now know what to do next in your life.

Life is really learning experiences where you have to be awake in order to learn the lessons the correct way. Once you do, you will avoid more scars in your heart. It doesn’t really mean you will not get them, but you can reduce the amount of scars coming your way.

Whatever you do in life, make sure you come out strong and with the experience you need. Nothing is really written in stone and all we can do is our best due to the fact that we figure things out along the way.

Remember:

  • The marks humans leave are too often scars
  • The Wound is the place where the light can enter you
  • We don’t die without any scars. Scars mean we lived.
  • It’s been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessons. But it is never gone.
  • Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most interesting characters are seared with scars.
  • Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.
  • The best people all have some kind of scar.
  • The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What’s left of kisses? Wounds, however leave scars.

Stop punishing yourself for being someone with a heart. You cannot protect yourself from suffering. To live is to grieve. You are not protecting yourself by shutting yourself off from the world. You are limiting yourself.

Scars always represent pain endured. Pain is part of what it means to be human, and scars become silent proof of the humanity. Some scars symbolize that life is full of pain and suffering that must be endured with strength. It’s no exaggeration, that to be human is to be scarred.

The Strength Of The All-powerful God

Psalm 9

Bystanders spotted a nine-year-old boy in a swollen river. He was struggling with all his might to stay afloat in the raging torrent. He did not have the strength to swim to shore, even though it was only ten yards away. Rescuers jumped in and pulled him to safety.

The boy was exhausted, he laid on the riverbank panting and trying to catch his breath. When he could breathe normally again, someone asked him “Did you fall in?” No, he said. “I just wanted to see how strong the current was. I sure found out!”

Psalm 9 talks about the strength of the all-powerful God, the creator. Ruler, and Judge of the Universe. It describes what happens to those who decide to challenge His strength or exalt themselves about Him.

They soon find out how powerful He really is. They lose their thrones. Their kingdom crumble. Their armies collapse. Yes the Lord endures forever. The all-powerful God is the One who protects and cares for those who take refuge in Him.

The same God whose power destroys evil preserves what is good. And no one can break through His protection without His permission. What a comfort to know that God’s power can thwart the wicked and protect the righteous!

I sure can trust a God like that.

Psalm 9

Authority In Christ

Three Things You Need To Know About Your Authority In Christ.

You and I are living in the most interesting human history in time. It’s no time to cower in fear or even allow darkness and evil to prevail it’s a time to use the authority God has given us!

In Luke 10;19 Jesus told us, “Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Now, I’ve known about my authority in Christ for a while, but I just don’t always remember to use it! Has that happened to you? Sometimes I just allow things to go on that shouldn’t, instead of using the authority that Jesus gave me.

I believe that the are three things we must be aware of in order to use this authority Jesus has given us:

  • We have to know what it is.
  • We have to know that it belongs to us.
  • We have to know how to use it.

What Authority Is

The authority that Jesus is talking about in Luke 10: 19 is not brute force power. It’s delegated power, much like a policeman possesses. When a policeman steps out in front of traffic and holds up his hand to stop it, he’s not stopping cars and trucks with his brute strength he’s stopping them with the delegated authority given to by God in Christ. You’re backed by all power of God.

That’s the authority you have in Christ. You’re not stopping the forces of darkness, sickness, fear, evil, or lack with your own strength your stopping them with the delegated authority given to you by God in Christ. Your backed by all the power of God.

How Amazing is that – God Almighty Himself is the power behind your authority! Ephesians 6:10 says, “Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” That means you can step out in front of the devil, hold up your hand and say no, backed by the power of God’s might.

It’s Belongs To Us

The Bible says that you are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). Jesus is the Head, we are the Body – and His authority is perpetuated through the Body. When Jesus rose from the dead, He transferred His authority to His Body, the church. In God’s mind, when Christ was raised, we were raised also.

Ephesians 2:6 says that God “raised us from. The dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” Both the Head and the Body are seated there, next to God, in the place of power and authority. That means you are seated there! You are seated in the power position, and you are His heir (Romans 8:17). That means that everything that’s His – including His authority – now belongs to you.

How To Use It

The door to exercising your authority in Christ hinges on Ephesians 1:20 and 2:6, the verses say we are seated with God in Christ. I encourage you to meditate on those until you fully grasp the revelation that you are seated with Him, and you are the one He moves through.

Then when adversity arises, use your authority by speaking out what His Word says, using the Name of Jesus. For example you could say, “Sickness. I command you to leave by body in Jesus’s Name according to 1 Peter 2;24 – by His stripes I am healed!” The authority is in the name,

It’s like using the name of the president of a comply – that name can get things done. It’s the same in the spirit realm, except that the Name of Jesus is higher – carries more weight – than any other name (Philippians 2:9).

Think about that! When you use the Name of Jesus believing that you’re seated with Him at the right hand of God, you are backed by all the power in heaven! Every knee must bow to that name (Philippians 2:10).

Jesus made it very clear that His name is the key to all authority: “Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it“ ( John 14:13-14).

In Acts 3 when Peter and John encountered a lame man at the Gate, they sat, “In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk and he did it wasn’t their own anointing or power that raised the man – it was the authority in the Name of Jesus. That same authority in the Name of Jesus. That same authority belongs to us – using the Name of Jesus is how we use it.

If everyone realized the authority we have in Christ and acted on it. we could change the world.

Maybe that’s why the world is trying to stop Christians from practicing our beliefs. We are powerful and have the authority to make the world a better place through Jesus Christ. We just need to realize it and act on it.

Jesus, where are you?

Have you ever walked through something so difficult, so terrifying, that you’ve caught yourself asking ‘Jesus where are you?’ Sometimes when life gets overwhelming m and when things get difficult and confusing, it can feel like our Messiah has gone missing. That’s how the disciples must have felt in an incident that happened right after the feeding of the 5,000. They got in a boat and quickly found themselves in rough waters, being tossed by strong winds. They strained at the oars as the realities of life beat against them.

This storm was terrifying for them. The waves weren’t just ebbing, cresting, and crashing around them. The waves were bubbling up and exploding all around them in unpredictable ways. They couldn’t brace themselves or their boat. They were completely helpless and swallowed up by fear.

Someiits hard not to be completely consumed by fear amid circumstances we didn’t see coming. Especially when we feel helpless, and there seems to be no good outcome in sight.

Even when our storms cause us to lose sight of hope Jesus never loses sight of us. While the disciples were in the boat straining, Jesus was sleeping and saw them. He went to them. And they almost completely missed the miracle in the midst of their mess.

The same miracle worker who multiplied the fish and the loaves was now walking on water near them, and they thought He was a ghost. Jesus’s response to the disciples who missed Him and who cried out in fear is remarkable. The scripture says immediately He spoke to them and said, “Don’t be afraid.” (Mark 50) The word used here means, “don’t resist Me.” And He climbed into the boat with them.

He’s saying the same thing to you and me, He’s not running from our messes. He’s climbing in to be right there with us. And with His presence comes peace.

In the midst of whatever hurts and heartbreaks are disturbing our peace. I pray we will see Him coming. We no longer have to cry out in fear; we can call out in faith. Calm and trusting. Anxious for nothing. Because we know. We know He sees us. We know He’s for us. We know He’s in control. Yes. The Lord is near. And we are safe.

Mark 6 45-52