My favorite historical figure is probably someone that not too many people recognize.
William J. Seymour was the leader of the Azusa Street Revival in 1906-1909 in Los Angeles, that defined the event of a worldwide movement. He was born in 1870 in property and raised Baptist, but he saw deeper spiritual experiences that led him to explore the holiest teaching. With racial segregation limited his opportunities. His interest is deep spiritual experiences let him to explore theholiest teachings.
Seymour moved to Houston, Texas in 1903 we he attended Bible school. Despite segregation, forcing him to listen from the outside of the classroom, he embrace the teachers lessons. He was invited to preach in Los Angeles as a small church but face rejection when he emphasized speaking in tongues the language that was spoken in Acts. He was soon locked out of the church, but began holding prayer meetings in his home where attendees experience tongues and spiritual outpourings.
Seymour was a humble and soft spoken leader that emphasized Holy Spirit, power, sanctification, and unity in Christ.
The Azuza Street revival Wayne due to internal disputes, external opposition, and his efforts to maintain order.
He laid the foundation for denominations like the assembly of God and the church of God in Christ, and his vision of racial unity inspired later movements.
His leadership and global force now was over 600 million. People focuses on spiritual gift and inclusivity still remains influential. The Azuza Street revival is seen as a landmark in Christian history, reviving, experimental, faith, and challenging racial barriers.
Strength is a biblical quality that is often mentioned in the scriptures. In the Bible, strength is more than just physical. It involves having the inner resources to face challenges and overcome obstacles with courage, perseverance, and resilience.
The strength that the Bible talks about comes from God and is seen as a key component of spiritual growth and maturity. Strength that comes from God is the ultimate source of strength.
In Isaiah 40:31 it says, “But they who waited for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
If we are to have strength – the strength that only God can give we have to make sure He is involved. So many times I have tried to do things on my own and they have failed. It’s important to remember to pray and ask God for wisdom.
“I can do all things through Him to strengthens me” -Phillipians 4:13
Our strength comes from Jesus, who enables us to face any challenge or difficulty with confidence and determination.
We can cultivate strength in a few ways:
Seek God’s strength. Spend time in prayer and ask God to strengthen you in your weakness.
Practice perseverance. Perseverance involves staying on course even when things get difficult. Set goals for yourself, and work towards them with determination and focus. I set one goal a week to accomplish. It builds momentum and helps me stay focused without feeling overwhelmed.
Cultivate courage. Courage involves facing challenges with confidence and determination, even in the face of fear. Take risks and step out of your comfort zone, trusting that God is with you.
Practice gratitude. When we focus on the blessings in our lives, we are more likely to find the strength to face challenges with a positive attitude. Take time each day to thank God for His mercy and grace.
Build supportive relationships. Surround yourself with people who will encourage and support you in your goals and aspirations.
Be open to change. Be open to new perspectives. It can enhance our understanding and help us grow personally. Focus on the positive aspects of life and the possibility of growth and change.
Embrace challenges. Challenges can be an opportunity for growth and development. Instead of shying away from challenges, embrace them with a spirit of determination and perseverance.
Practice self-care. Self-care may not seem like a way to strengthen ourselves but taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually can all contribute to our strength and resilience. Take time for things you enjoy and energize you.
Prayer guide for developing strength:
Pray for the ability to wait in the Lord. “But they who waiting on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings of eagle that shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faith” -Isaiah 40,31.
2. Pray for the ability to trust in God’s strength. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” -Psalm 46:1
3. Pray for the ability to persevere through difficult times. “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him” -James 1:12
4. Pray for the ability to find strength in weakness. “But He said, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is mad perfect in weakness, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest on me” – 2 Corinthians 12:9
5. Pray for the ability to overcome fear. “Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I an your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous hand”-Isaiah 41:10
6. Pray for the ability to love others with strength. ‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” -1 John 4:7
7. Pray for the ability to find strength to forgive with strength. “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” -Ephesians 4:32
Praying for the ability to wait on the Lord, trust in God’s strength, persevere through difficult times, find strength in weakness, overcome fear, and love others with strength. Finding strength in hope can help us develop stress.
As we grow in strength, we will become more like Jesus, who was the ultimate example of strength and resilience in the face of suffering and adversity.
First crushes hit hard because it’s a mix of raw emotion and vulnerability. It’s a projects hopes, desires, and ideals onto the other person.
From a science perspective, it drops dopamine and oxytocin cocktail that makes every thing feel electric.
First crushes teach us what to do or don’t, and what we do or don’t want in a relationship. And it usually hits us hard when it hits us that they want anything to do with us.
Respect for humanity is a core principle that recognizes the inherit dignity and worth of every human being. It emphasizes treating all individuals with fairness, equality, and consideration, regardless of background, beliefs, or circumstances.
The Bible talked about the inherent worth of all humans regardless of status, race, or gender as we were all created in God’s image.
In Acts 10:34-35 Peter declares,
“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears Him, and does what is right.”
Sadly, disrespect or hate for someone who has a different skin color, ethnicity, or religion is taught by media and politics which fuels division and rewards anger over understanding, and acts as a “de facto” teacher of disrespect. Cultural influences also play a significant role in shaping attitudes of disrespect and hate towards humanity, and sometimes foster disrespect and hate through implicit and explicit teachings.
The key aspects of respect for humanity include:
Equality: treating everyone equally regardless of the race, gender, religion, social status, or any other characteristic.
Dignity: recognizing the intrinsic value of every person, and not using them as a means to an end.
Rights: respecting the fundamental rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom, and security.
Kindness and compassion: showing empathy and concern for the well-being of others, even those that we disagree with.
Everyone deserves the right to life. We are at a place in the world where the forced beliefs of others are causing violence, war, and death.
I have suffered from Migraine headaches for over 40 years. I’ve been to doctors, and neurologists and have tried every treatment possible and nothing seems to help. I have often wondered what the purpose of pain is. It is not just something we have to endure in the fallen world. Does God has a purpose for it?
I watch a movie the other night called “Sigmond Freud’s Last Session.” C.S. Lewis was in it. I learned that Lewis wrote in one his book “The Problem of Pain, God whispers to us in our pleasures, and speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It his megaphone to arouse a deaf world.
Pain and suffering may be the consequences of sin in a broken world. But nothing is wasted in God’s economy. As He continues to allow this temporary season, how will the Lord use this for my good and His glory? I wonder what He might want me learn through my migraines.
Is it to keep me humble? Or maybe to slow me don’t so I can spend more time with Him. Because just when I think I am fully trusting the Lord. He reveals to me I’m only scratching the surface. He is continuously calling me to grow.
When I’m suffering for days with a migraine I need to remember the many people praying for me, and encouraging me. He has people in my life who will support me.
But, pain and suffering have a powerful way of drawing me to God. Pain and suffering are not just negative experiences, they also are opportunities for growth, learning, and redemptive growth. Romans 5:3-5 says,
“We also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance, proven character, hope. And hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
The megaphone of the pain and suffering can be a powerful tool for good.
We can ignore pleasures, but pain and suffering insist on being attended to. There is no doubt that God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument. But it is only one that gives “bad people” an opportunity for amendment. It removes the veil and allows us to see what’s behind it.
I know that when I’m in pain, God allows me to draw closer to Him.
I would love to visit Budapest, Hungary and take the ancestral village tour to get an idea of who my ancestors were. Learning a few cooking secret would be great also. I can cook a few things, but they don’t quite taste like Nagymama’s. Maybe her secret ingredient was love.
One of my favorite things about myself is I am observant. Growing up I wasn’t allowed to speak. My mother would always say ‘children were meant to be seen not heard,’ I wasn’t allowed to ask her questions. I became observant of things around me. It was how I learned.
As an adult it has become one of my best qualities. I notice things others don’t . I acquire knowledge, and skills by watching others. I learn the behaviors of others by watching them.
One of the greatest survival tactics we have been given is prayer. We have an open channel of communication with the One true God. Praying the word of God is a powerful tool of comfort in the world we live in.
Jesus said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world.”
Heaven is home to God’s children. The pressure of the world to fit into its mold can be suffocating. In Romans 12:2 Paul encourages us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world.” God has the power to move in our lives and through our circumstances. Prayer allows us to unload the burden of this world into His capable hands which plugs us into peace here on earth.
Praying God’s Word is a powerful tool of comfort in the world we live in.
The state of our world can convict us and cause us to cling to things in this world. If we read the Bible we can see the volatile history of mankind’s fallen nature. Human history is scarred. And the conditions of our world only continue to increase.
We do not have to succumb to the world’s doom-and-gloom reality of society because we have the power of the living God in us through Jesus. Through our love of Jesus, we can forge a path that illuminates the way, and by adjusting our perspective we can see past the world’s destruction and have hope that Jesus will come to save us.
We have a personal, saving God who created each of us with a purpose that allows us to feel His love and extend that love to others. May God’s love rule in our hearts, because all life flows through it.
Too often we allow the ways of the world to overwhelm us. We are called to be light in a dark world because we have a source of light in us for those around us.
God’s love is light that gives us hope, guidance, and a divine presence in the middle of suffering or confusion. God’s love is a gradient force that pierces through the despair of evil. His love brings clarity and warmth in life’s darkest moments. His love is light that doesn’t just illuminate but also comforts and guides us through the void in this world.
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” -1 Thessalonians 5:16
Prayer is a vital part of a relationship with God because it is what cultivates that relationship. How can we depend to someone we don’t know?
Really, this isn’t complicated. We have to make praying a priority in our lives. Don’t wait until you in the parking lot until the interview to pray about the job. Don’t wait to pray that you will have healthy children pray about it when you find yourself with a child.
It is never too early to talk to God about what going nom in your life.
A while ago I ordered a part for a friend’s truck for her. I didn’t pray about it first. The entire process has been a dumpster fire. The delivery driver hasn’t delivered it. It says it’s out for delivery, but they won’t deliver it, despite though have delivered other things. It’s very frustrating. I have been praying about it, even though I’m late in the process. I know God can even answer prayer when they are too late, maybe its because I have lost faith that they will even deliver it at this point.
Whether I pray now or later, God still has the power to answer them.
It’s not about whether God will answer prayer, it’s whether we have enough faith. God tells us we will have trials and tribulations in life.
We are fighting a war, but our weapons are not swords or guns, we fight with words -our prayers. Even though this fight is in the spiritual it’s not ok rush it. Spiritual or not when we rush about it there is little chance of winning. Maybe before saying a prayer at the last minute, or waiting for trouble to come, we should prepare the for the battle ahead.
John 16:33 that trouble will come,
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you will have peace. In the world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
If we know it’s coming we should pray about it now. Because by the time the problem comes, we will be more prepared. In fact, God will likely move things around innour favor so the problem will be solved before it gets to us.
Deuteronomy 31:8 tells us,
“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you, He will never leave you not foresake you, Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.”
Jesus can fight our battles ahead of time. How many more battles will be won in advance when we add our faith to prayer?
What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?
The oldest thing I use today would be my father’s devil dog depot can opener from when he was in the service. It’s on my key chain. It’s functional and brings back memories.
It seems like worldly self-esteem bases our worth on appearance, possessions and accomplishments. Whether high or low, this kind of esteem is prideful, it focuses on self, and doesn’t add value to our lives. It minimizes our potential for growth and influence.
However self-image is based on the value God has placed on us and goes far beyond what we can dream or imagine.
We can increase our value by living a Christ-centered follower.
If we look at the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians it gives us reasons we are valuable to God.
We are valuable because of who we are
“God said, let’s made man in our image, after of likeness…” -Genesis 1:26
When we were created by God, we were the focus of His love.
“Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be Holy and without defect before Him in love” -Ephesians 1:4
2. We are valuable because of what we can become.
As a person who is loved by God and adopted into His family as believers, we can be sure that God has a plan for each of our lives.
“In whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him who does all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we should be to the praise of His glory, we who had before hoped in Messiah” – Ephesians 1:11-12
3. We are valuable because of what we cost.
Ad one loved by God, we have also been chosen by God for
“Adoption as sons (and daughters) by Jesus Christ Himself” – Ephesians 1:5
This adoption came at a high price, with the death of God’s Son,
“He made us accepted in the beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” –Ephesians 1:6-7
The value God has placed on us is the value we should place on ourselves. We can live as someone valued by God when we know these truths:
Jesus wants to have a relationship with us. When Paul prayed,
“Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith” -Ephesians 3:17
He wasn’t referring to something temporary. Jesus wants to live and relate with us permanently.
We can experience Jesus’s love.
As if we were being pursued relationally by the Son of God isn’t enough, even more amazing is the fact that He wants each of us to strengthen us,
“may (be) strengthened to comprehend with all the Holy ones what is the width and length and height and depth, and know Messiah love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God” -Ephesians 3:18
Jesus wants us to be filled with the fullness of God and came that we might live more abundantly.
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” -John 10:10
God’s power is not limited.
“Now in Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” -Ephesians 3:20
God can do a great work within us.
This divine love and power that exceeds our imaginations works in us because His Spirit strengthens us and the Holy Spirit lives in us once we are saved.
With these truths we cannot help seeing ourselves as valuable. But it doesn’t stop there. To live as someone valued by God we must do something with that knowledge.
Here are some things to do with the knowledge we have:
Discover our spiritual paths and start moving. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul pleaded with believers to walk worthy of the calling with which we were called. Be intentional about living a life that matches who we are by virtue of our relationship with Jesus.
Be humble and disciplined. Cultivating Jesus’s attitude of humanity by putting others before ourselves and following through with what we start. “With all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love” -Ephesians 4:2
Experience community and serve one another. We feel more valuable when we work to add value to other’s lives and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
“Being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” -Ephesians 4:3
4. Use your unique gifts. Followers of Jesus are “one body” who belong to “one Lord” and one God and Father (Ephesians 4:4-6), but that doesn’t mean we are supposed to look, speak, and act alike. God has made us all unique and He has given us unique gifts to influence others and add value to our lives.
5. Keep growing. Ephesians 4:15 says that satisfaction with the status quo always leads to stagnation. Until the day we die, we have the potential to keep growing, leading, and making a difference in the world by adding value to others’ lives. It starts by believing and living as someone valued by God.
You matter. You are valuable. Start living like it.
From Pity to Praise 