2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
How do you renew your mind? Your mind is renewed by the Word of God. You can begin renewing your mind by reading and studying, but we must not forget to speak the Word of God. You need to start saying what the Bible says about you. Use Biblical affirmations to declare over your life.
Start first thing in the morning. Start speaking the Word of God out loud. That way you can hear it, which will build up your faith, and the devil will hear it and he will back off once he knows that you know what the Bible says, he can’t mess with you. There are Bible affirmations that you can say each morning.
As you continue to repeat these powerful declarations from the Bible you will begin to agree with them, and the way you think will change, then the way that you speak will change. You will see a turnaround in your life.
I speak from experience. As I began to read the Bible, then study and meditate on it, I deliberately began to declare it, not just in the morning but at any time of day. My attitude changed, I was no longer feeling weak. I began to feel strong because I began to believe what the Bible said about me.
As you begin to do this, the same thing will happen to you in Jesus' name!
I attend to the Word of God. I keep it in the midst of my heart. It is life to me and health to my flesh.
Lord, not my will but thine be done. Whatever you have planned for me today I submit to it. Today I walk in your plan for my life.
I am the head and not the tail
I am above and not beneath
I am the lender and not the borrower
I am blessed
I have favor
I destroy every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And bring my thoughts into the obedience of Christ.
I walk in the Spirit and do not do what my flesh wants me to do.
I am strong and energetic.
I am made for signs and wonders.
Today I will overcome and conquer any obstacles I may face.
I have the mind of Christ.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
The Lord has given me a good future and hope.
I prosper and am healthy.
I walk by faith and not by what I see or feel.
God has given me a spirit of intelligence.
I pray that these powerful declarations from the Bible will be a blessing to you. I pray that you will see a positive change in your life as you speak these positive affirmations using Bible verses. Start decreeing and declaring these over your life today and you will experience the change!
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I’m going to give you a few practical tips on managing your emotions. Now I’m not a psychologist, so the tips that I’m giving to you are based on my own experiences…with a focus on self-control.
This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
According to the Webster dictionary, emotions are a conscious mental reaction experienced as strong feelings usually directed toward something.
Feelings are an emotional state or reaction.
I decided to put focus on self-control because the points that I’m going to give you all require self-control. But as believers, we have a helper and that is the Holy Spirit.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Self-control is one of the fruit of the Spirit, now would God require that we exhibit these fruits if it wasn’t possible? Of course not, and it's possible with the help of the Holy Spirit and you putting forth your effort.
Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about self-control, then I will give you the tips that I have for you.
A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.
God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.
26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayer
I’ve learned that self-control is a big part of managing your emotions. You can learn how to deal with emotions Biblically.
2 Peter 1:3 NLT says 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
We can see that the Bible has a lot to say about self-control. I advise if you are lacking in this area to do a topical Bible study on all the verses that you can find about self-control. You can also do a topical Bible study on emotions.
According to my NLT life application study Bible, self-control is Restraint exercised over your impulses, emotions, or desires.
So based on that definition we can see that self-control is all you. No one can do it for you it’s a decision that you have to make to restrain yourself and have emotional control.
Ok so let’s get into a few practical ways that can help you to manage your emotions and show you that you can control your emotions.
I’m starting with a big one…walk away. If you are ever in a situation that is causing your emotions to heighten you need to remove yourself from the situation. Now I know that sounds logical…right? But it is one of the hardest things to do.
Walking away when you have so much to say takes self-control. Walking away when you’re getting caught up in your emotions takes self-control. Walking away when you don’t want to takes self-control. That’s one of the best ways to control your emotions in the moment.
You know yourself; you can feel when your emotions are on the brink of getting out of control. So, before you reach that point walk away.
I can tell you from experience that you can’t have a productive argument or resolve anything when things are heated. The best thing to do is to have that conversation when you have calmed down.
I’ve had to do this with my kids as well. Now walking away doesn’t make you weak and it doesn’t mean that what the other person is saying is right.
It simply means that you have made a conscious decision not to allow yourself to get caught up in the argument especially when we all know that the outcome is not going to be good.
You’re probably going to say something that you will regret, then apologizing after doesn’t take away the emotional pain that the other person has suffered because of what you said.
You can revisit the conversation once everything has calmed down. Most of the time…now I’m not saying 100% of the time, but most of the time you will have a better conversation once you have calmed down and had time to think about it.
Pick your battles…that’s what my mother has told me many times. Not everything is worth the argument.
I’ve had to use this advice mostly with my children. It’s easy to get on your child’s case for everything that they do, but not everything is worth the fight.
We can let things go. Just take a deep breath and let it go. My favorite thing to do in these situations is to say under my breath…”Jesus help me” as I walk away. It might sound funny, but it helps.
Now this one I’ve had to do many times and it ties into the 1st and 2nd tips. Meditate on the Bible. It is so calming to just pick up your Bible find a verse and just meditate on it.
It doesn’t have to have anything to do with the situation that you were facing, I just open it find a verse and just meditate on it.
You know that moment when you walk away, or decide that this was a battle that you weren’t going to take on? Meditating on the Bible is a perfect way to calm you down.
If you don’t want to just open the Bible to a random verse, have a few verses written down in your Bible that you can go to at that moment.
I can say that this helps every time. It takes a minute, but as you continue to read and meditate on it you will feel a change in your emotions.
Your emotions are real and sometimes they could be justified, and they are valid. Your feelings are your feelings and there must be a reason that you feel this way.
However, acting negatively based on your feelings is where the problem lies. Learning how to communicate your feelings and emotions calmly is the best way to get your point across.
Screaming, yelling, and acting out of control will take away from the valid points that you have they will be buried under your emotional behavior.
That’s one of the benefits of controlling your emotions, people will take you seriously, and not push aside what you are saying because you are acting irrationally.
This is something that I find very important. Reflecting on how you reacted to a situation once everything has calmed down and seeing how you could have reacted in a better way is key.
This normally happens for me at bedtime, when everything is quiet, and I think about my day and the things that happened throughout my day.
We are not perfect, but like the Bible says we are striving for perfection, so we should always be looking for ways that we can improve ourselves.
Ok so these last 2 points are personal for me, but they might help you as well.
I laugh as I think about this but if I’m hungry or tired…or better yet, hungry and tired my reactions seem to be less controlled. I feel annoyed and miserable, I don’t want anyone to bother me, my family knows this all too well.
So, what I’ve been trying to do is make sure that I eat when I should especially in the morning because I found that it would contribute to how I reacted to certain situations during the day.
I would say to myself, why did I answer that way or why do I feel so annoyed, then I realized that it was because I was hungry.
For me I realized my triggers, lack of sleep and hunger perhaps you too have some triggers and if you do, do what you need to prevent those triggers from affecting your day.
I hope that these tips for managing your emotions will help you, they weren’t groundbreaking tips but they are practical and can be implemented right away.
You may not get the hang of it right away, but don’t give up just keep trying. Remember what Philippians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
Call on the Lord to help you, He always does His part, it’s just up to you to do yours.
How do you manage your emotions? Let me know in the comments, I love hearing from you.
If you came across this article and you’re not a believer or you were a believer and you strayed away from God and you want to make Jesus, the Lord of your life say this prayer:
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to me, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day. Go to church, find a Bible-believing church and tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
How To Reconnect With God
Steps To Spiritual Growth
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What are emotions and what are feelings? To me, they seem to go hand in hand.
According to the webster dictionary, emotions are a conscious mental reaction experienced as strong feelings usually directed toward something.
Feelings are an emotional state or reaction.
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We’ve all encountered situations where we were emotional. Feeling emotions is not a bad thing because there are many different types of emotions that we can have. In my research, some say there are more than 30 emotions, but I found what is believed to be the basic core emotions.
Joy, sadness, trust, disgust, fear, anger, surprise, and anticipation.
Now I’m not getting into a study about emotions because we humans are so complex, I don’t know if we could ever really know the full extent of our emotions. But one thing I do know is that we should never allow our feelings and emotions to rule us.
There can be major consequences when we live our lives based on how we feel. Have you ever asked a child why did you do that, and they say because I felt like it? Well, we can't go around doing whatever we feel like especially as believers.
What about when someone loses their temper and their excuse is “well that’s just how I am, I’m an emotional person so I react emotionally.” When you think of it, is that really a good excuse? That means that we could get out of any situation, even legal ones by using that excuse.
A husband or a wife cheat on their spouse because they had feelings for someone else. Feelings can be controlled, and they can be deceiving, that’s why as believers we cannot live our lives based on how we feel.
I don’t always feel like waking up early in the morning and praying or reading my Bible. Sometimes I have to force myself to get out of my bed because I know the consequence of not spending time with God will result in not having a close intimate relationship with God.
I’m not saying that you need to wake up early, but that is the time that I have set aside in my day to spend with the Lord.
Have you felt alone like God wasn’t there or like He wasn’t listening to your prayers? I have…well, that feeling is deceiving. The Bible says that He will never leave us or forsake us, it also says that if we pray according to His will then He hears us.
And that’s why we cannot rely on our feelings or emotions, they can never override the Word of God.
14 Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained.
3 “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
Now they were caught up in their emotions. Did they forget all that God had done for them? They were going by their feelings, not facts about God. They knew all that God had brought them through.
Based on everything that God had done for them did they have any reason to think that He would now leave them to die instead of providing what they need? Do you see how your emotions can cause you to think irationally?
If they had just taken a moment to calm down and not react, if they had taken a moment to remember what God had told them, their response would have been a lot different.
Now, this is a very important point. When something happens and we immediately want to react based on how we feel or our emotions, stop and remember what the Bible says. What did God tell us in his Word? That is what we are to stand on.
Let's say that you are believing God to save an unsaved loved one, and it seems like you are making a little headway, then all of a sudden there is a situation that seems to bring you 10 steps back.
What is going to be your reaction? Get all emotional and start saying things you shouldn’t? Like this person is never going to get saved, I’m just wasting my time praying for them.
Or do you stand on God’s Word and say as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Obviously, the second reaction should be the one that we have but there are times when it takes a minute before we get there.
Trust me I’ve been there. There have been many times when I allowed my emotions to get the best of me and reacted in a way that I shouldn’t have. So, what do I do, go to the Lord and ask for His forgiveness and His help to fix the situation. The amazing thing about our Heavenly Father is even though we messed up He will still help us.
But wouldn’t it be better to skip the entire overreaction and go to God and His word right away for the answer? That has been my goal lately, it's not always easy, but as you put it into practice and put it at the forefront of your mind it gets better.
That’s why I decided to write this article, I thought to myself if this is something that I am now finally learning to deal with maybe my experience can help someone else.
You know what I realized, was that I couldn’t do it on my own, I needed to use the help that Jesus sent to me and that is the Holy Spirit.
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentlenesses, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Isn’t that what it's really about? Having self-control. Let me tell you what the definition of self-control is. It's the ability to control yourself, specifically your emotions and desires(feelings) or the expression of them in your behavior, especially in difficult situations.
And this is a fruit is produced in us by the Holy Spirit. We can't get it by trying to do it in our strength we need to depend on Him every day, all day.
I know that was my problem, I was trying to do it with my strength. I remember having a conversation with my mom when I was dealing with a particular situation. I said to her, every day I wake up and say “ok, I’m not going to allow it to get to me I’m not going to allow my emotions to take over,” and every day I would lose.
Honestly, it wasn’t until I told the Lord, that I could no longer do it on my own and I needed His help then things started to get better. It didn’t happen right away, it took some time and prayer. But soon that very situation started to get better once I stopped reacting in the wrong way, actually once I stopped reacting at all.
We have to remember in the midst of all this we have an enemy that is out to destroy us. It seems when he sees a weak spot, he continues to hit it over and over again to try to break us down. And every time we react how he wants us to, first it has a negative effect on our relationships or our own mental and physical health, and it gives him ammunition and he won’t stop.
But once we give it to God and He begins to help us and change us into who we should be the devil backs down because he is no longer satisfied by the reaction he is getting. he will continue for a while to see, but then he leaves that situation and moves onto something else. That’s just what I have seen and learned in my own life experiences.
Please don’t think that I have this perfected, of course not, there are other areas that I am still working on, but in this particular situation I was able to get the victory over it, all glory to God.
I pray that you were encouraged by what I have learned when dealing with my feelings and my emotions. And as I encourage you, I also encourage myself.
I hope that you found this helpful and that you can see that we are all striving for perfection, but most importantly never give up. God sees your heart, call on Him, He will always answer you.
If there are any topics that you would like me to write about, let me know in the comments, I love hearing from you.
If you came across this article and you’re not a believer or you were a believer and you strayed away from God and you want to make Jesus, the Lord of your life say this prayer:
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to me, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day. Go to church, find a Bible-believing church and tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
How To Reconnect With God
Steps To Spiritual Growth
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I have made it my mission to try my best to teach them that I am not obligated to give anything to them aside from the necessary things that parents should give their children.
Anything extra that they get, we give to them out of love not because they are entitled to it.
I can only speak for my family, but I figured out why my children “had” …and I stress the word “had” that mentality. When I was growing up, my parents had just immigrated here, and they didn’t have much and they didn’t really know all the ins and outs of the country.
My sisters and I had to figure out a lot on our own. As a result, I went a little overboard with my kids so that they didn’t have to figure it all out.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with helping your children, but I realized that I also needed to give them the opportunity to figure a few things out on their own.
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According to the dictionary, gratitude is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Gratitude is thankfulness, showing appreciation when someone does something for you and not taking them for granted. It's saying thank you and letting the person know that you appreciate what they have done for you.
That’s why at a very early age we teach our babies to say thank you because it's polite, but most importantly it's showing appreciation for the other person.
Does the Bible actually talk about gratitude?
It sure does, it talks a lot about being thankful, reading these Bible verses to our kids daily can help them to grow up with an attitude of gratitude. The Bible talks about teaching our children the Word of God so that they don’t forget it.
Use these verses as memory verses or do a little Bible study with them. I know that we sometimes think they are too young, but they know a lot more than we think. It’s also good to have Bible devotions with your children and these verses are a great topic.
18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
Related: 7 Bible Verses About Gratitude To God
1. Be an example
The best way that we can teach a child anything is to be an example of what we are teaching them. Daily we can show them how we are thankful and how we show gratitude. We can do this by not complaining about situations but by finding something in that same situation to be thankful for.
Another great way is to show gratitude to our kids, and it doesn’t have to be for any specific reason. Just for simply being our child.
They tend to mimic what we do and they have a great memory, and when we tell them to do something that we aren’t doing, they always remember to bring it up to us.
How about journaling? That’s a great example to show your kids, a gratitude journal is a great way to help you to be deliberate about gratitude.
2. Give to others
Have your child give to the less fortunate. When my children were younger I would have them go through their toys and give away some of their gently used toys and I would let them pick the toys to give away.
At first, they weren’t very happy about it, but it soon became an exciting exercise for them to do. As well, at Christmas time, we go to the mall and pick a gift and donate it each year. This gives me an opportunity to have a great conversation with them to show them how fortunate they are.
3. Have them volunteer
This is a great one, I have my kids volunteer at church on almost a weekly basis. It gives them a chance to give back without expecting something in return.
It’s funny I was so caught up with having them volunteer until I realized that I wasn’t being an example for them as I wasn’t volunteering myself. So, I decided to be an example and volunteer as well. It is truly an amazing feeling to help and not expect anything in return.
How do you teach your children gratitude? I’d love to know in the comments below.
Have you been an example to your kids by showing gratitude? Do you need help getting started? Grab my Gratitude Journal Bundle today!
If you came across this article and you’re not a believer or you were a believer and you strayed away from God and you want to make Jesus, the Lord of your life say this prayer:
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to me, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day. Go to church, find a Bible-believing church and tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
How To Reconnect With God
Steps To Spiritual Growth
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This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
If you want to reconnect with God, then you cannot be controlled by your flesh. As we see in these verses if you are controlled by your sinful nature, you can never, please God.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives, that’s walking in the Holy Spirit. Here is what I learned, we are a spirit, with a soul in a body. Our body or flesh is always fighting us because it wants to do what pleases itself not God.
But it is up to us to build up our spirit by praying, spending time with God, reading the Bible, meditating on the Bible, and fasting & praying for our spirit to take control. It doesn’t happen instantly…you wake up one day and it's done, it’s a process of doing these things daily to live by the Spirit.
It’s surrendering our will and submitting to the will of God, that’s a step that you will need to take if you really want to reconnect with God and build an intimate relationship with him.
Just say Lord, I surrender I give all of me to you, I want your will to be done in my life because I know your will is perfect. Tell him, yes Father to your will, whatever it may be. Like I said it’s a process, so you might mess up that day maybe you made a bad decision.
Repent and continue the next day never stop! God knows your heart and if you are sincere then you will begin to see God’s handwork in your life.
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
It’s very clear, that the Spirit and the flesh want the opposite things, so this is a constant daily fight.
Paul said…
I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
And that’s what we need to do daily, take control of our flesh, and tell it no and yield to what the Spirit wants us to do. When you yield to the Holy Spirit you begin to walk by the Spirit. Don’t feel discouraged, thinking “this is too hard I don’t think that I can do it.” You’re not in it alone, that’s why we have the Holy Spirit.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
So, the Holy Spirit is our advocate, comforter, encourager, counselor, and teacher.
So, let’s take a closer look at the fruit of the Spirit. These fruit are character traits that are also found in the nature of Jesus. We can try to develop the fruit of the Spirit without the help of the Holy Spirit, but we can’t do it in our strength we need Him.
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
We cannot trust in our strength alone we depend on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fruit of the Spirit is a result of being led by Spirit. It’s not something that we can conjure up through our own will. The Holy Spirit produces these fruit or traits in us as we begin to walk with Him, as we begin to walk after the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit are – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
When you seek for the good of others whether you think they deserve it or not when you give without expecting anything in return. Love is unconditional. You don’t love someone because of what they give to you, you love because that is what God has commanded us to do.
The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Joy is not contingent on your circumstances. That’s happiness, that comes when everything around you is going well. But Joy comes from the Lord. This is deep in your spirit; it doesn’t come through emotions.
Joy is there even when everything around you is telling you to be sad. Joy comes from the hope and faith that we have in Jesus, knowing that no matter what’s happening it’s temporary because we know He is going to bring us through. Joy is knowing that you have a comforter a helper the Holy Spirit that is always right there with you. Joy is knowing that Jesus said that He would never leave us or forsake us.
Peace is not worrying even when the situation that you’re dealing with is calling out to you to worry. Peace is comfort in knowing that you have released the situation into God’s hands, and you can now rest knowing that you have received salvation through Jesus, and you are on your way to Heaven.
satan tries to attack the believer and no matter what he sends our way we hold on, we endure, we persevere, never giving up. Jesus said that trouble would come but take heart because He has overcome the world. Trouble will come, but we don’t have to get stuck in it and worry, we keep pressing on because we know what the end result will be.
How do you treat people? Are your words encouraging and uplifting? Or are they hurtful and tear down others? If this is something that you are struggling with, ask the Holy Spirit to help you…He will.
Some of these fruit are intertwined. Goodness also has to do with the way that you treat others and your behavior. Does your behavior reflect the character of Christ? Are you kind to others? Do you do things without expecting anything in return? These are the characteristics of goodness.
It’s easy to say we believe God until our faith is tested. It’s easy to say we trust God until everything around us is falling apart. Many had their faith in the government or their employment. But look where we are now…where do you turn? You need to run to the Lord and His word. We need to have complete trust and confidence in God and what He says in His Word.
Many believe that being gentle is a weakness, but it’s the opposite. It means that you are strong because you portray the characteristics of goodness and kindness. The Bible says blessed are the meek because they shall inherit the earth.
Jesus when being crucified could have destroyed everyone and everything around Him but He chose the route of meekness and humility so that He could save us and give us eternal life.
The Bible says that we need to be slow to anger and have emotional restraint. I think that this is one of the most important fruit because if you have self-control then the other fruit can fall into place.
Let me explain, if you know that the fruit are a result of walking with the Holy Spirit, then you will pursue a relationship with Him and begin to walk after the Spirit and that takes self-control. Then as you are learning how to live by the Spirit of God, the rest of the fruit will be produced because you are being led by the Holy Spirit.
Has this been helpful for you? Do you now understand How To Live By The Spirit?
I pray that this entire series has been a blessing to you and that you have learned a few ways to reconnect with God.
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to us…pray, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day, find a Bible-believing church and attend, and last tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
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How To Reconnect With God
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This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
“But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. 21 Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So, because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
If you’re not familiar with Saul, he was the king before David. As you can see in these verses Saul was more focused on the sacrifice than he was on being obedient to God. Samuel was not saying that the sacrifice was not important, but it was more of a religious act to Saul, his heart wasn’t really into it, so in his case, it was just a ritual that was empty.
Let’s relate it to us now. Going to church and giving is not enough if we are just doing it out of religious duty, not out of devotion and obedience to God. God wants us to do these things because we love Him and if we love Him then we will obey him.
Jesus said…
John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.”
That is straightforward, we can show our love for the Lord by the way we live our lives in obedience to Him.
Some things are black and white in the Bible, for example not lying, the Bible states, thou shalt not lie…so we know that lying is a sin. But what about other situations in your life that the Bible doesn’t clearly outline what you should do? What about knowing the will of God for your life and walking in the plan that He has for you?
That has to do with your relationship with Him. That’s why you need to reconnect with God to get direction from Him. God said that He has a plan for your life.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Well, if God has a plan for your life, and it’s a good plan then don’t you want to know what it is?
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the plans that God has for us, but we need to seek Him and develop a relationship with Him to find out what it is that He wants us to do. As we seek Him and we listen for His voice and study the Word, we begin to know His character.
So, we may have situations in our lives that are not black and white, but you can use the Bible for direction and as you get to know the Lord better you can now make a decision based on His character.
But let me give you an example, a few years ago I was looking for a work-from-home job. I was already working, but I needed a job that was closer to home. I wanted to ensure that I didn’t just take any job, I wanted it to be the job that God had for me. I was offered a work-from-home job, and I was so very excited, before accepting they told me what the schedule would be.
Because I was new to the position, I was required to work every Sunday. Now the Bible doesn’t outline what type of job I should take, but I was able to use the Bible as a guide when deciding if I should leave my current Monday-Friday job or take this work-from-home job that would cause me to miss church every Sunday.
The Bible says…
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Based on the Bible verse, it doesn’t clearly say that I shouldn’t take that job that would require me to miss church, but I used this as a guide. I wasn’t unemployed and looking, I had a job, so it was more of a decision to stay in the current situation (although I knew that I needed to get out eventually) or take this job that would cause me and my children to no longer attend Sunday service.
For me, I decided to stay where I was because I felt that it was not God’s will for me to miss church and for my children to miss church as well. I felt that I was walking in obedience.
I just want to be clear…I had a job. If you are in a situation where you don’t have a job and are looking, you will have to let the Holy Spirit guide you.
A few years later God did provide a job that allowed me to work from home and it was Monday – Friday so, I was very happy that I made that decision and used the Word of God to guide me.
If you want to reconnect with God through obedience, then get to know Him, develop a relationship with God. Fast and pray, allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s will for your life, and read/study the Bible.
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.
Here I will give you a few reasons why I think that we should obey God. If you are feeling distant from God sometimes it can be that you are not walking in obedience to Him.
I mentioned earlier that Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments.
We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.
Having faith and trusting God are acts of obedience.
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. 23 I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.
Jesus didn’t say try to have faith, He said to have faith. So, when we have faith in God we are being obedient to His word.
When God begins to reveal His plan for your life, it may be out of your comfort zone, and it will take a step of faith to be obedient to that plan. God doesn’t always reveal the entire plan that He has for you, it’s more of a need-to-know basis, so you will need to take a step and after you take that step, He will give you the next step to take. In order to do this, you must trust Him.
“Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! 27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
Obedience is the key to blessings because God rewards obedience. When we do what He says it puts us on the right track, but we must decide to obey Him.
Don’t be deceived by anyone that would tell you that the Bible is outdated and doesn’t have to be followed that is a lie from the enemy because he knows the power that is in God’s Word. The Bible doesn’t need to be updated or re-written to fit the times that we live in. God and His Word never change.
Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
I pray that this has been helpful and that you can now see the importance of Obeying The Word Of God.
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to us…pray, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day, find a Bible-believing church and attend, and last tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
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How To Reconnect With God
Steps To Spiritual Growth
Do you want to reconnect with Him? These steps that I’m going to give to you will be a starting point to get your relationship with God back on track.
This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
There can be many reasons why you feel distant from God. It could be that you’re feeling far from God because of sin, guilt, disobedience, not feeling worthy, lack of trust, or you’re too busy. Those are a few of the reasons that I think are typical.
When there is sin in your life, the enemy uses it to make you feel guilty and unworthy. You can see how many of these reasons are connected. Maybe there was something that the Lord told you to do and you still haven’t done it. Did He give you an instruction and you have just been putting it off and planning to do it later and never got to it?
Perhaps you’re just too busy…or so you think. It’s so easy for life to get in the way, you have kids, a job, and other household duties. Maybe you have aging parents that you need to take care of. There are so many things in our lives that can cause us to drift away from God and not make our relationship a priority.
But here is the good news! You can reconnect with God; you can develop levels of intimacy with God.
I know how it feels, I was there. There were times in my life when I felt that I had no relationship with God because I wasn’t making time for Him. I didn’t say there was just 1 time, in the past, this happened to me numerous times. I would realize that I wasn’t where I should be and I would say, okay I am going to get back to where I should be. Then I would slack off again.
I had many excuses, the kids, my job, I’m tired. I remember when I use to travel 2 hours to work and 2 hours home from work. I had to wake up at 4 am to get to work at 7 am, then when I left at 3 pm I wouldn’t get home until after 5.
Once I got home, I was exhausted, but I had other responsibilities. My husband was working the night shift and our life seemed so crazy, that I couldn’t find time in my day to spend with God.
And I thought that this was an excuse, but maybe if I had found time, I wouldn’t have felt so overwhelmed because I would have received peace from the Lord.
I was listening to a preacher one evening and he said that we need to make God a priority. God must see that we value Him and that He is important to us. So, I decided that I was going to spend time with the Lord no matter what.
I started by waking up half-hour earlier each morning yes, 3:30 am to pray, but I soon realized that it didn’t work for me because I was falling asleep while praying. So, do you know what I did? I decided to go to God and ask him for help because I realized that I could talk to God about everything.
I said, “Lord I want to spend time with you, but how can I do this when I feel like there is no time in my day?” Do you know what happened? God began to show me time that I didn’t know I had.
I was spending so much time traveling back and forth to work that was a perfect time to read the Bible and meditate on the Word of God.
After I put the kids to sleep, I could spend half an hour in prayer and that worked for me, I was able to start rebuilding my relationship with God.
There isn’t a specific formula that works for everyone, your schedule is different, and we all have different responsibilities so start by talking to Jesus and asking Him to help you.
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
So how do you talk to Lord? Have a conversation with Him the same way you would if you were talking to a loved one.
Start by repenting. Tell Him that you’re sorry that you allowed the cares of life to cause you to drift away from Him.
I promise you He won’t turn you away. I know you may feel that it’s been so long God must be mad at me, He probably doesn’t want to hear from me. That is deception from the enemy, God longs to hear from you, He longs to have an intimate relationship with you…Talk to God.
I know that we have all heard this verse before:
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Have you really thought about it? The desire that God has for us, that He would send His only Son to die for us so that we could be part of His family? Does that sound like he doesn’t want a relationship with you? Not to me…it sounds like you are so important to Him that He gave up His own Son so that you could become an adopted child of God.
Don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking that you have gone too far and that you can’t come back and reconnect with God. You can and God wants you to.
Ok so now you have repented and decided that you are going to start connecting with God again, you need to set a dedicated time during your day to spend with Him. Make it a daily appointment on your calendar that you cannot miss. Try to set up a specific time during the day when you know that you can have uninterrupted time with the Lord.
It might sound a little weird to schedule time with God, but it worked for me. I no longer work that job where I had to wake up early, I now work from home. So, every morning I wake up at 7 am before everyone in the house wakes up and I spend time with God.
My alarm goes off at 6:55 and at 7 I get up and go to a room alone so that I can spend time with God. Please let me tell you that it doesn’t mean that I jump out of bed every morning excited and ready to go…no. There are days when I don’t want to get up, but we can’t go by feelings, cause if we did nothing would get done.
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
I recite this verse to myself sometimes, because as the verse says that the flesh fights against the spirit. I’m saying this to encourage someone that thinks that they are not good enough because they feel like they have to force themselves to read the Bible or to pray.
No, you are good enough, this verse was written by Paul, and he understood the fight between the spirit and the flesh.
The fact that you push yourself to do what you don’t feel like doing because you know it’s the right thing to do, should tell you that you are on the right track.
I have never heard God’s voice…I have never heard an audible voice from God. So, you are probably wondering now, ok so what do you mean when you say to listen for God’s voice? It’s more of a voice you hear in your spirit or your heart. God also speaks to us through the Bible.
We need to be able to know when it is God speaking to us and that comes with building your relationship with Him. As you get closer to God you will be able to tell the difference if it is God speaking to you. I heard it explained like this and I thought it was a great way to help you understand.
As you get closer to God, you begin to know who He is, you begin to understand His ways like Moses did.
He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.
Moses knew God, but Israel, only knew of the miracles He did but they never took the time to get to know Him.
Ok so let me continue with the explanation. As you develop a closer intimate relationship with God and study the Bible, you will start to know when something is His will even if it isn’t written in black and white in the Bible. Because you know His character you start to learn if He would approve of certain things or if it goes against who He is.
Let’s use a mother, for example, I know my mom and I know her personality and the type of person she is because over the years I have had a relationship with her and have gotten to know her. So, I know what she would approve of and what she would not approve of, because I know her character.
If someone that sounded the same as my mom said something to me, but it was out of character, I would immediately know that it wasn’t her because I know her and what was said does not line up with her character.
That is the same with your relationship with God, as you get to know Him, you will be able to tell if it’s God speaking to you. Does it line up with His character? Does it line up with Bible principles? That will help you to know His voice.
But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”
I pray this was helpful and that you see you can Reconnect With God no matter how far you feel that you have strayed. He is a wonderful and loving Father waiting with outstretched hands for you to return to Him.
Do you now see that you can always come back to God no matter how far you have strayed?
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to us…pray, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day, find a Bible-believing church and attend, and last tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
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Is it possible for us as believers to live free from sin? Now that doesn’t mean that you will never sin again, no, but it does mean that sin will not control and dominate your life.
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The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So, God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
When you accept Jesus as your Lord and savior sin loses its control over you according to the Bible because we now follow the Spirit instead of the flesh or our sinful nature.
It goes on to say…
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.
Here Paul shows two categories of people, those that are dominated by their sinful nature and those that are controlled by the Holy Spirit. I thank Jesus every day for dying for us because without His death and resurrection we would all be in the category that is dominated by sinful nature.
When we are controlled by the Holy Spirit, we lead a life of peace but being controlled by our sinful nature leads to death, which alone should help each of us to stay away from sin.
We need to consciously decide to follow the way of the Lord by searching His Word and choosing to follow His guidelines.
You may encounter some situations that have you a little confused as to what the right decision is but ask the Holy Spirit to direct you and He will, He will never steer you the wrong way, you just must be willing to listen, obey, and choose not to sin.
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Hiding the Word or keeping the Word of God in our hearts can help you to stop sinning, but it’s not enough just to know it but also to obey it and put it to practice in your life.
This is why reading, studying, and meditating on the Word of God is so important, they are a vital part of your spiritual growth.
You can use the Word of God as a guide for all you do, and if you follow it that can show you how to overcome sin.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
In this verse, Paul mentions 3 characteristics that God has given to us through the Holy Spirit…power, love, and self-discipline.
When I read this verse, I look at it this way, I have the power to overcome anything that the enemy sends my way, and that includes the temptation to sin. Just because there is temptation doesn’t mean that you must give into it.
Also, I have self-discipline or self-control that I can say no to committing that sin.
Yes, we have the Holy Spirit to help us, but it takes action on our part. The Holy Spirit leads and guides us, but it is up to us to follow that direction.
He will not force us to do anything because we all have free will. He can show us the right way, but we must be disciplined enough to follow.
The enemy knows our weakness, so that is what he will use to try to get us to sin. But we need to realize that we have the power to overcome that temptation and we have freedom from sin.
Do you know how I see it? If you truly love God, you will want to please him and obey him. I don’t want my actions to be disappointing to God. Because of my love for him, I want to please Him in all ways and that means that my flesh will no longer be in control, my spirit must be in control because the flesh is always at odds with God.
Just like I read in Romans chapter 8, the sinful nature has never pleased God and it never will, so we need to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.
That means there may be some things that we do, or places we go, or things that we watch that we will have to deny ourselves to be pleasing to God and that all boils down to having self-control and being disciplined by choosing not to sin.
Well, maybe you want to know how to stop sinning or how to stop habitual sin. As I mentioned earlier it's self-control and following the Spirit. Set boundaries, if you know that there are things that you watch on TV that you shouldn’t put a lock on those channels.
If there are certain temptations that you face when you go to certain places, then stop going to those places, don’t deliberately put yourself in a position that you know the enemy can trap you in. I know what I am saying may not be what you want to hear but it all boils down to us.
What are we willing to do to live a life free from sin? Sometimes we need to remove ourselves from people, places, or things that were put there to bring us down. That’s how you can stop sinning and how to stop sinning the same sin.
If you’re struggling with sin, talk to God, tell Him about your struggle He will help you, but I guess the point that I am trying to drive home is that it must take effort on your part. God isn’t going to make you stop sinning. When you accepted Jesus, He empowered you to overcome sin in your life.
You should rejoice because you already have what you need to live free from sin, you have freedom from the power of sin!
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Those verses are so uplifting it’s telling us, now that we belong to Christ we are not slaves to sin, we are dead to sin because Jesus broke the power of sin over your life…we are alive through Christ Jesus.
Don’t let the enemy lie to you and tell you that you are too weak to overcome whatever the sin may be that you are struggling with. Resist him, tell him to shut up and leave, he was already defeated by Jesus on the cross and he has no power over you.
I pray that you have been encouraged and you now see that you can live a life free from sin. This series gave you a few steps to spiritual growth and I hope that you will start taking these steps. Watch as your relationship with the Lord grows and you begin to see a change in your life.
Do you now see how you can live in freedom from sin?
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to us…pray, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day, find a Bible-believing church and attend, and last tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
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This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
As I was studying and doing my research, I saw that there are many different types of prayer.
Based on the title of each prayer you can probably determine what would be said during each specific prayer. But I think that we sometimes over complicate things.
I guess its ok to have an idea of these types of prayers, but don’t focus on it just ensure that you are taking the time to talk to God.
Here’s what my NLT study Bible says prayer is. Having a conversation with God. I love that definition, it’s not overly complicated and it’s to the point. Have a conversation with God.
It’s important if you truly want to build a relationship with the Lord, then you need to talk to Him. It’s no different than your relationship that you would try to build with let’s say your future spouse.
You meet someone and they seem like the type of person that you want to get to know. How do you get to know that person? By talking to them and spending time with them…uninterrupted.
If you are talking to them but you have distractions all around you and you’re not really paying attention to the person, how can you build that relationship? If everything is put ahead of them and you don’t make that person a priority in your life, the relationship will go nowhere.
Guess what? That is the same with getting to know the Lord. You need to set aside dedicated time for Him, daily prayer. No distractions, no interruptions…just you and Jesus.
Getting to know Him through His word and through prayer and listening for His voice, because He will speak to you through the Holy Spirit. But if you are not paying attention and get caught up with all of the distractions that we all face in life, how can you hear what He has to say to you?
How will you know what His plan is for your life? You need to become a friend of God.
In Exodus 33:11 it says Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.
That should be all of our desires. For God to speak to us through the Holy Spirit.
I know sometimes we set aside the time to pray, and we say a few things and it would seem as if we have run out of things to say. I have been there. I remember when prayer time was not enjoyable to me, just being honest. I would deliberately set aside time to pray, but I would start and just run out of things to say, or just not feel that motivation to pray.
What worked for me was using the Word of God as my prayer. Finding scriptures in the Bible that I could pray for specific situations that I was dealing with. I started praying the word of God back to Him.
I was amazed when I began to search the scriptures and found actual verses that I could use as prayers for my situation. Then making those prayers personal. Wow it truly opened my eyes when I began to see myself or my situation in the scriptures. It just makes you appreciate the Bible so much more. This was one of they keys to my spiritual growth.
And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
So, when we pray the Word of God, we are praying the will of God.
The amazing thing is that as I began to pray the scriptures, I could also sense the Holy Spirit begin to lead me in my prayer time. It is truly an amazing way to pray you should add it to your prayer time. I even use the scriptures to pray for people in my life, like my spouse and even my children.
Now another important aspect to prayer is words of worship to God.
For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
What does this scripture really mean? God is not a physical being He is a spirit, He is present everywhere, so the importance isn’t necessarily on where we worship.
Yes, going to church is important and necessary according to the Word of God so that is not what I am saying. I am just saying that yes you should worship God in church, but you can also worship Him in your home.
The most important part of worship is how we worship, is our worship genuine and true coming from our heart. We need to know the truth which comes from the Bible, which is why we need to be continually in the Word, reading studying and meditating on it. Allowing it to renew our mind.
Worshiping God is giving Him honor and praise it’s fixing your thoughts on Jesus and all that He has done for you. You can also worship the Lord by singing worship songs that give Him honor, glory and praise.
According to the dictionary worship is to honor, show reverence, to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.
What happens when we worship God? It puts the focus on God. You begin to see how great, how wonderful, how awesome He is. Your affection is now directed towards God no other person or thing, all the focus is on Him.
The Holy Spirit begins revealing God’s love for you, sometimes it can feel overwhelming as you begin see how much God loves you.
But once the worship has come to an end, you should feel a change. The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people.
I believe that every interaction that we have with God should bring about a change in our lives. You should walk away feeling strengthened and rejuvenated by the power of God. That is one way how to strengthen your spirit man.
I pray that you can see how prayer and worship can help you to grow spiritually and help you to develop a closer and intimate relationship with the Lord.
Do you already incorporate worship in your daily prayer? If not, will you?
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to us…pray, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day, find a Bible-believing church and attend, and last tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
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The same way that we are to take care of our body physically is the same type of care that we should take care spiritually. Eating too much junk food and not providing your body with nourishment will have a negative effect on your health.
Although our bodies don't live forever, we still need to take care of them while we are living. However, your spirit lives on forever, and taking care of your spirit is just as important as taking care of your physical health.
What are you putting into your spirit? Are you feeding it negativity? Doubt, unbelief? Are you only putting into yourself things that feed the flesh and not thinking about feeding your spirit?
We all take the time in our days to do all the important things that need to get done…and we should take care of our responsibilities. But our relationship with God should also be a top priority on that daily list that we each have.
Reading the Bible, Studying the Bible, and Meditating on the Bible are the first steps that I will give to you for spiritual growth. Now of course assuming that you have already taken the very first step of receiving Jesus into your heart and making Him the Lord and Savior of your life.
If you haven’t, no worries because at the end of this article you will have that opportunity.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized how important it was for me to read the Bible and to study it as well as meditate on it to get understanding.
We are going to focus on a few keys to spiritual growth, Reading the Bible, Studying the Bible, and Meditating on the Bible.
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
According to this verse if we study the Bible and meditate on it then we will succeed and prosper. The Bible is so much more than just a book that we read; it is the Word of God.
God speaks to us through the Bible that’s why it’s important to take time out of your day to spend reading, studying, and meditating on it.
We need revelation from the Word of God to understand it and apply it to our lives, then we will see a transformation. That is when you see a change in your life because of your obedience and understanding of the Word.
As you study and meditate on it, it opens your eyes to things that you have never seen before. There have been so many times that I would meditate on a verse and receive revelation from it that I have never seen before.
And it’s a verse that I have read many times, that’s one of the benefits of reading the Bible daily. It also has to do with your heart. Is your heart prepared to receive what the Bible is saying to you? Do you read it and walk away not learning or remembering anything that you read?
Or do you receive revelation, and you are excited at the time that you read it, then walk away and not apply it to your life?
This reminds me of the parable of the Sower in Matthew chapter 13. I listened to a preaching talk about what this parable really means, and it was amazing to me. He said that the soil represents our hearts, and the seed is the Word of God.
Some seeds fell on rocky places where the soil was shallow, so it sprang up quickly, but it had no root, so it quickly withered. That represents how some of us receive the Word of God…it doesn’t stick because we are not grounded in the Word.
Then some seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns choked the plants, so here the seeds grew into plants, but they were choked by the cares of life and the problems that we face.
We receive the Word, we believe it but we don’t persevere we allow all the troubles of life to cause us to doubt what the Word says.
Then some seed fell on good soil and produced a crop, these are the ones that declare and believe, this is how you strengthen your spirit man. These are the ones that did not get weary in well-doing as the Bible says and they saw the fruit of what they have believed.
We have to allow the Word of God to get into us so that we can speak it out. That is how faith is built, it comes from hearing the Word and believing it as the final truth.
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
So, we see how the Bible can have an impact on our lives, and how important it is that we read and study it, but also that we prepare our heart to receive so that we can be transformed by the Word.
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
The Bible is living and life-changing as it works inside of us. It reveals who we really are and what we need to change. It exposes the good and the bad in each of us and once revealed it requires that we decide whether to change or to stay as we are. Allow the Word of God to shape your life by being obedient.
The Holy Spirit will reveal all that we need to know, we just need to be receptive and to listen to His voice. God wants us all to live the life that He planned for us.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
He only wants the best for us His children and He has given us all the resources that we need to succeed, but it’s up to us to use them.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Again, here is another scripture that shows us that all scripture was inspired by God. He gave it to us for a purpose, it’s to teach us, correction, preparation and to equip us so that we can walk in the plan that He has for our lives.
So now we have talked about studying, meditating, and reading the Bible, we also need to talk about speaking the Word.
If we truly want to grow spiritually, we need to start speaking what the Word of God says. If the Word of God is living and active, then we can use those very words to speak to our situations and see a change.
When the enemy comes and he will, we just need to speak the Word of God to him, he has no option but to go when you speak what the Bible says. Satan wants to get you to look at the situation and all the bad that’s going on around you so that you take your eyes off what God already said.
That’s why the Bible says that we walk by faith, not by sight. I know what my situation looks like in the natural, but do I know what it looks like in the spiritual? That’s what’s true.
Now that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be aware of what’s happening, that’s not what I am saying, you still need to deal with it knowing what God said. What does the Bible say about the situation that you’re dealing with right now? Speak that, speak the Word, not the problem.
Believe me, it’s easier said than done, I know. I too find myself sometimes caught up in a problem and letting it take precedence over what the Bible says, but I must take a step back and say to myself, this situation is contrary to what the Word of God says, and it must go in Jesus’ name.
When you study and meditate on the word, it’s there for you when you are in a situation and perhaps you don’t have a second to grab your Bible to look up a verse, but the Holy Spirit brings back that scripture you were studying or meditating on, and you immediately speak the Word into that situation.
Ask the holy spirit to soften your heart so that your soil will be ready to receive the seed which is the Word of God. I will leave you with this prayer based on Jeremiah 24:7 that I say every morning.
Heavenly Father, give me a heart to know you, help me to return to you with my whole heart.
If you came across this article and you’re not a believer or you use to be a believer and you strayed away from God and you want to make Jesus the Lord of your life say this prayer :
Jesus come into my heart. I turn my back on sin and I repent, and I trust in you. I confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. I accept by faith the free gift of salvation in Jesus’ name Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved, congratulations and welcome to the family of God. I will give you the advice that my pastor gave to us…pray, you need to pray which is talking to God, that is how you build your relationship with Him.
He loves you and cares about everything that concerns you. Read your Bible every day, find a Bible-believing church and attend, and last tell someone that you are saved.
I pray that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Are you going to incorporate these steps into your daily routine? What are your tips for Spiritual Growth?
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The amazing thing about God is that He provides us all that we need in the Bible to show us how to live a Christian life. There are many verses and stories in the Bible that give us practical Christian living steps that we can follow.
1 Thessalonians 5: 12-22
Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. 13 Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.
14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.
15 See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil.
Here’s what Paul is telling us:
There are 13 ways that you can live according to the Bible!
Let’s start with the story about Joseph I love this story. I’ve heard many people refer to it as the story from the prison to the palace. It’s such an uplifting story showing that no matter what situation you may have been put in God is always there with you.
He will give you favor and prosper you in all areas of your life. I’m going to give you a summary of the story of Joseph. For the full story refer to Genesis 37 – 50.
Joseph was the youngest son to Jacob. He was favored by his father and had prophetic dreams that he would share with his brothers and that created a lot of jealousy between him and his brothers. His older brothers conspired and sold him into slavery.
However even in the midst of trouble he still survived and prospered because of his personal knowledge of God. Joseph became Potiphar’s personal attendant and was put in charge of everything he had.
Just to give you an idea, Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh who was the king of Egypt. Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce Joseph and he refused she lied on him and said that he was trying to take advantage of her.
But God even gave him favor in prison. There are a series of events that take place, and he interprets Pharaoh’s dream and ends up becoming the ruler of Egypt. A famine hit all the surrounding countries, but Egypt had enough, because of Joseph’s wisdom they had a storehouse that was able to provide grain for the people to buy.
Ok, so it ends up that Joseph’s brothers had to come to Egypt to buy grain and they had no idea the high-ranking position that Joseph had. It turns out by the end of this story Joseph provided food and shelter to all of his people including the brothers that despised him and sold him into slavery.
Here are a few characteristics that we as believers can learn from Joseph that will teach us how to live a Christian life and live according to the Bible. You will see that these characteristics are a perfect start if you’re wondering how to live like Jesus every day.
Joseph knew that God had a plan for his life based on the prophetic dreams that he received, and he never gave up. He continued to believe even in the face of adversity, he remained patient knowing that God’s plan would come to pass.
When Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce him, he could have given into that temptation, but he refused knowing that if he did give in it would have been a very wicked thing to do to Potiphar.
Joseph didn’t question God and ask why, he could have been angry with God because he was sold into slavery, and because he ended up in prison when he was innocent but instead, he stood faithful.
Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers, what betrayal. When they came to purchase grain, he could have turned them away because of what they did to him, but he forgave and provided food and shelter for them in the end.
Here is another story that I love, it’s the story about Daniel this story can be found in the book of Daniel. There is a specific story in the book of Daniel that I would like to focus on and that is Daniel in the lion’s den.
Daniel was deported to a foreign land after Judah was conquered. He was now in a place surrounded by idolaters. Now the king ordered his chief of staff to bring to him some young men that were strong, healthy, and good looking with knowledge and good judgement.
Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshac, and Abendigo were some of the young men chosen. The king had assigned food and wine from his own kitchen, but Daniel did not eat it as he did not want to defile himself.
Daniel and his friends ate only vegetables and water for 10 days and they were healthier than the others, God gave them an unusual aptitude for understanding and every aspect of wisdom. They were chosen and many events happened including Daniel interpreting the kings’ dreams and Shadrach, Meshac, and Abendigo being thrown into a fiery furnace and God delivering them un harmed.
Because of Daniel’s great ability the king made plans to put him over the entire empire. Due to jealousy, the other administrator conspired against him and because they knew how loyal he was to God they needed a plan that could be connected to his faith in God.
They went to king Darius and advised him to make a law for 30 days that everyone should pray to him and no other God or they would be thrown in the lion’s den and he agreed. But Daniel continued to pray to God 3 times a day with his window opened giving thanks to God.
The officials went to Daniels’s home and saw him praying to God and reported back to the king. The king did not want to throw Daniel into the den and tried to think of a way to save him but could not.
So, Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. The next morning the king went to look for Daniel and he answered My God has sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me for I have been found innocent in his sight.
There was not a scratch on Daniel, the men that conspired against Daniel, the king ordered for them to be thrown into the den and they were torn apart before they even hit the floor of the den.
In this story Daniel portrayed living a Godly life and here are a few of his characteristics that we can live by. They aren’t Bible rules to live by, but characteristics that will help us with our spiritual growth.
Daniel refused to eat the food from the kings table he was disciplined to refuse the best food and willing to live off of vegetable and water for 10 days.
Although he knew that it was against the law to worship God, Daniel continued to worship the Lord 3 times a day regardless of the consequences. He knew that God would deliver him. He wasn’t fearless based on his own ability; he was fearless based on God’s ability to save him.
Daniel took his job seriously; he did everything with excellence which is why he was able to get promoted. This falls into the category where Paul says do not to be lazy. Just because God gave you a talent doesn’t mean that you don’t have to put effort into what you do. If you are faithful in the little things God will continue to increase you.
I can tell you that its not about how to be a good Christian, or Bible rules to live by, its about developing a relationship with Jesus and depending on the Holy Spirit to help you.
I know that it seems that I have listed many characteristics, but these are just some tips on how we should live our lives according to the Bible. Don’t feel overwhelmed, now that you have an idea of some of the characteristics of a Christian, depend on the Holy Spirit to help you to become the person that God wants you to be.
That’s the wonderful thing about being a believer, God knows that we cannot do this through our own strength, although we are required to put in the effort, He also sent the Holy Spirit to be our teacher and our helper as we live this Christian life and pursue spiritual growth.
Philippians 2:14-16
Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.
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When Jesus was on this earth, He became flesh, and His life was an example of what we should live like. Jesus showed us that it is possible to walk in the plan that God has for our lives and to live obedient to God.
Jesus faced all the same obstacles that we now face in life, betrayal by a close friend, people hating you for what you believe, pain, and suffering while on the cross. In all this, Jesus showed us how we should react and respond to many different situations that we must deal with.
Living like Jesus is also pleasing to our Heavenly Father. God said that He was pleased with Jesus and if we live like Him, we will also please Him.
Let's explore the life of Jesus with Bible verses about Christian living that will teach us how to live like Jesus in the modern world.
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
When we work together and are compassionate and put other's needs before our own, we are demonstrating the attitude of Jesus. We are to be humble, not putting ourselves down or feeling inferior to others but humble before God, recognizing that it was because of His love that we can be saved and have eternal life through Christ Jesus. These are amazing practical Christian living tips that we can apply to our lives.
We are to show others respect and in simple terms, just be kind to each other when we put our interests aside and help others, we are showing humility and we demonstrate the same attitude that Christ by being obedient to God and coming down and dying for our sins, that is the greatest form of humility.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jesus had an attitude of serving others. He came down for one purpose and that was to save us by dying on the cross for our sins. But while He was here on earth, He showed us how we should live as believers. We should all have an attitude of serving others.
What does it mean to serve others? Helping and giving our time to someone in need. It could be with our talents, perhaps monetary, whatever way you can help. It becomes a part of living a Christian life, putting others first and not only thinking about what we want and what we need but thinking about the areas that others need help and how can we help them, just like Jesus did.
I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.
I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it.
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.
What can we learn from His relationship with God? Jesus was obedient. We can see in all these verses that He didn’t come to accomplish anything else but the will of our Heavenly Father.
Jesus was obedient to God unto death, that’s how much He loved Him. Jesus didn’t even speak on his own, He only spoke what God told Him to speak He even told him how to say it.
This is truly an amazing example of how our relationship should be with God. We need to be obedient to His Word and when He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, and He does talk to us. If we genuinely want to learn how to live like Jesus, then we must be unconditionally obedient to God.
No matter what He tells us we must follow. I won’t say every morning, but I do try to remember when I wake up, I say to God “Lord whatever you have planned for me today, I submit to it, help me to walk in your will for me today” and I end it with “be it unto me as you have spoken” the same way that Mary responded to the angel when he told her that she would conceive Jesus.
Let’s all decide today that we will follow Jesus’ example and be obedient to our Heavenly Father no matter what He tells us to do and that we will be obedient to His Word.
After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.
After telling everyone good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.
But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.
How can we live like Jesus in the modern world? We can pray and develop an intimate relationship with God. As we can see Jesus spent a lot of time praying to our Heavenly Father. What is prayer?
Prayer is having a conversation with God, it can be you repenting, telling Him about something that you need help with, it could be a request, praise, or thanksgiving. This is how you can build an intimate relationship with the Lord and get to know Him and hear from Him. He will also speak to you in your prayer time if you take the time to listen.
We can see in Luke 15 that Jesus often went to pray, so that is an example that we need to follow. Of course, we have jobs and responsibilities that we need to handle throughout our day but being deliberate to set aside time during your day to pray is just as important as anything else we must do.
For me, it's best early in the morning, before my kids wake up because I can have a quiet and peaceful interaction with the Lord without distractions. Perhaps mornings don’t work for you it doesn’t matter just ensure that you are picking a time when you can be completely focused on your time with God.
And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness.
Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.
When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.
We can see that according to Acts 10, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because of this, He was able to heal all who were oppressed by the devil, which includes everything, sickness, and disease, your mind. Any type of oppression comes from the enemy and Jesus had the ability to heal.
If we are to follow the example of Jesus, then shouldn’t we believe that God anointed us as well with the Holy Spirit and we should do what Jesus did? I know that some believe that Jesus was only able to do these things because He is the son of God but look at the other verses.
He gave us authority over all the power of the enemy, He said in John that anyone who believes will do the same works that He did.
I believe, you believe that means that it’s possible and time for us to start walking in the power and authority of God given to us by Jesus. Think about that, it means that we don’t have to take anything that the enemy sends our way.
We don’t have to accept it. We have authority over his power, we’re not weak we’re not defeated, we are strong, we are conquerors we are overcomers.
The enemy wants us to believe that he is more powerful and that we can’t defeat him, that’s a lie according to what the Bible says. I heard a preacher say when you get a package delivered to your house and you don’t want it you can reject it and say return to sender and don’t accept the package.
It’s the same way with satan, when he sends something your way, don’t accept it…say “No!” …return to sender and use the Word of God against him, reject anything that the enemy sends your way. You have the authority, Jesus said it, believe what He said, put action to it, and watch the change you will see in your life!
So…You can live like Jesus in the modern world! Mimic His attitude, His relationship with God, and accept the authority and power that He has given to you.
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What does it mean to be a Christian? We could make this complicated, but I like the simple definition that my New Living Translation Daily Application Study Bible gives. A Christian is someone who professes belief in and follows the teachings of Jesus Christ.
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For me, there aren’t a set of Christianity rules of behavior, but there are certain things that you can do that will allow you to stand out and people will know that you are a believer. There may be conversations that you don’t engage in or places that you don’t go because you as a believer you feel that it's not appropriate.
But that doesn’t mean that there are a bunch of Bible rules to live by and that there is a list of things that Christians shouldn’t do. This is all developed by your relationship with God. There may be things that you feel you shouldn’t do, but another believer feels it ok, that doesn’t give us the right to judge them.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
I remember when we were younger, we weren’t allowed to go to the movies, my parents felt it was wrong to go as a Christian. However, now that I am older, I don’t feel that there is anything wrong with going to the movies. I think that you need to be selective with what you watch, but going I think is ok.
However, I don’t judge my parents for not allowing us to go, that was their conviction.
Sometimes these lines of what we should and shouldn’t do seem to be blurred, but it comes with Christian Spiritual Growth. You have to allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to guide you.
Along with allowing the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to guide you there are some practical Christian living steps that you can take when Living A Christian Life In A Sinful World.
Praying is how you can start and continue to develop a relationship with Jesus. Without reading the Bible can you really be considered a Christian? I’m not making a judgment on that but it’s something to think about. In the definition of what a Christian is, it says that you believe and follow the teachings of Jesus.
Where are the teachings of Jesus found? In the Bible, so if you don’t read and study the Bible how can you profess to believe and follow the teaching of Jesus? The Bible is God’s Word it's God speaking to you.
I always laugh when I remember this story. A preacher said when someone comes to him and says do you have a word from the Lord for me…he replies yes…go and read the Bible. This is God speaking to us…we need to believe what the Word says and let it penetrate our hearts and speak it from our mouths.
Hebrew 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
The Bible isn’t just a story, it's living and life-changing as it works in us. It reveals who we are and who we are not, it penetrates our moral and spiritual life. It exposes the good and not so good inside of us. That’s why it's so important to read and study the Bible we need to allow it to shape our lives.
Jesus said that He would send us a helper and our helper is the Holy Spirit.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
You don’t have to rely on your strength, the Holy Spirit will help you if you depend on Him. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God, and He was sent because Jesus asked the Father to send Him. The Holy Spirit was sent to care for us and to guide us.
During my study, I found that advocate combines the ideas of comfort and counsel and that it could also be translated as comforter, encourager, and counselor. How amazing is that the Holy Spirit is here for our benefit, we don’t have to walk this Christian walk all on our own we have a comforter, an encourager, and a counselor that we can depend on. Rely on Him to help you.
I know that it’s easier said than done. What does that mean and how do I do that? I like practical Christian living steps. I heard all the advice of what to do and what not to do as a Christian, but I’m the type of person that needs an explanation on how to do or not to do something.
That’s why I try to give you steps that you could take right now to see that change. So how do you stop allowing your circumstance to get you down? You must have a mindset change. This is what the Bible has to say.
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
No matter what is happening in our lives according to the Bible we need to be thankful. Now it doesn’t mean that you are thanking God for the circumstance that you are going through…no…it means that even though you may be going through a hard time you remain thankful.
You thank, praise, and worship God. Do you know what will quickly remove the heaviness that you may be feeling because of a situation? Praising, worshiping, and thanking God. As you begin to do this you realize that God is bigger than any circumstance that you could face.
You remember all the other things that He has brought you through and now you no longer feel down. You must live a life of worship, praise, and thanksgiving daily.
The enemy would love for you to feel down and depressed every day because of your circumstance, and he will put thoughts in your mind or have others speak negativity to you.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians that our fight isn’t physical, it is a spiritual fight. You need to take hold of your thoughts by casting down any thoughts that are contrary to the word of God.
How can you cast it down? by rebuking it and replacing it with the Word of God. You counteract it by speaking what God has said about you and your situation according to the Bible.
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
How will this sinful world recognize that we are Christians? By the love that we show. Now that doesn’t mean that you are a pushover and you allow people to walk all over you, I just felt the need to put that in because that’s how some view love.
I always tell my kids that love is an action word. Anyone can say that they love you but do their actions show that they do.
So how can we love others as Jesus loves us? By helping others even when it is inconvenient for us, by giving and devoting time and energy to others, those are just a few examples.
And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Some may feel that mark 16 doesn’t apply to them since Jesus was talking to the disciples, but aren’t we all disciples of Christ? As a side note, there are many resources out there to help if you do choose to tell someone about Jesus.
There is also another way that you could tell others about Jesus by not actually telling them and that is by the way that you live. As Matthew 5 says that others will see your good deed and they will praise our heavenly Father.
As you follow the practical steps that I have given to you today your life will become your testimony, or your witness and others will notice and want what you have.
Being tempted is not a sin, it's when we yield to the temptation that it becomes a sin.
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
We are all tempted in some way, and we are probably tempted by different things. But we can feel assured that God will help us, He will not allow us to be tempted more than we can handle, He provides us with a way out…what an amazing Heavenly Father we have.
You can fight temptation whatever it may be by also relying on the Holy Spirit to help you.
I know that the Holy Spirit tugs at our hearts and warns us before we do something wrong. Have you ever said something that you shouldn’t have? I have been in situations when I was tempted to say things that I shouldn’t out of anger, and I always sense the Holy Spirit telling me don’t do it.
To be honest, I didn’t always listen and there are consequences for disobedience. The Holy Spirit is simply trying to help us out of a situation that could get out of control. Thank God for His grace and mercy, that I was able to repent.
I have since learned that it is always in my best interest to listen to that still small voice giving me counsel and I made a conscious decision that I would.
So, we can fight temptation when we depend on and listen to the Holy Spirit.
I pray that these steps that I have given to you have shown you that you can live a Christian life in a sinful world, and you can live it victoriously! Start implementing these steps today and see the change that you will experience in your life.
What step will you start today?
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It took me years to understand Faith In God, so I’m going to give you the definition of faith in God as well as what faith in God means to me. I’ll give you 5 practical steps that you can implement today.
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According to my New Living Translation Daily Application Study Bible:
Faith – reliance, loyalty, or complete trust in God.
Trust – assured reliance on the character ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.
Here we have the technical definitions but what does this look like in our lives as Christians what is a practical take on faith, how do you show faith in daily life?
Here are 5 practical steps that you can start to implement today.
I’m all about practicality, give me steps or guidance on how to get something done. My mind works well with actual steps that I can take to see a change or progress in my life. This was one of the biggest issues I had when I would try to progress in my relationship with God.
The instructions that I go were too vague. Just trust Him? Give it all to God? Take a step of faith? What? What does all that mean in my daily life as a believer? I was lacking guidance. Thank God for the Holy Spirit and for a few ministers that were able to help me to get to the place that I am now.
I know how it feels to feel lost and that is why I aim to give practical steps that you can implement right away.
My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. 21 Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, 22 for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.
The Bible is the Word of God, it's God speaking to us. We must determine in our heart that what the Bible says is true, you have to believe that God has the final say. God does not and cannot lie. If He says that we are more than conquerors, then we are, If He says that we are victorious, then we are. If He says that we can do all things through Christ, then guess what we can.
We look at what’s happening around us and then use that to dismiss what God says in his Word. Just because you may not see it happening right now, doesn’t make the word of God a lie.
Just because you may have seen something that happens in the life of someone that you look up to and it is contrary to what the Bible says doesn’t mean that is how it will turn out for you.
You need to dig deep and hold fast to the word of God no matter what you see. Holding fast just means that you stick to what you believe and don’t take your eyes off what the Bible says.
I remember hearing a preacher say that you must hold on to it as a bulldog holds on to his bone. No one could ever take it away from them no matter how hard they try.
Satan will try to discourage you and make you feel like, what is the point, I’m not seeing this is my life so it must not work for me. That is a lie you don’t try faith; you continue in it no matter what and your true faith will encourage others.
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
If you want to continue walking by faith daily, you must read the Bible. That’s how to grow in faith. You need to feed on the Word of God. As you read and study it, you will feel that your confidence in God will begin to increase.
Seeing all the amazing miracles in the Bible and seeing the example of men and women of God believing and God answering their prayers. You can’t help but get excited knowing that this is the same God that exists now. Knowing that what He did for them in the Bible He will do for you too!
Look at what Timothy says, it teaches us and helps us to realize what is wrong in our lives, it corrects us when we are wrong, and teaches us to do what is right. It’s not just a book that you read stories to see what happened in the past the Word of God is living and active.
If you read it with an open heart and ask the Holy Spirit to give you revelations and understanding, it can change your entire life.
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
Ask the Holy Spirit for revelation as you meditate on the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the one that gives revelation into the Word of God. This is the only way that we can understand and apply it to our lives.
Meditation on the Word of God brings clarity. It brings revelation and helps with memorization; you need God to give you insight and wisdom into His Word. This will help to guide you in your life.
Once you begin to meditate on the Word of God, you will receive revelation and understanding. You may be wondering, how to meditate. This is what I do every morning; I pick one Scripture verse and ask the Holy Spirit for revelation and understanding.
Then I'll read it a few times out loud because I feel that when I hear it, it gets into my spirit. Then, I’ll continue to read it over and over in my mind. As you do that, you'll start seeing things in the Scripture that you didn't realize were there before. Then I continue to think about that scripture throughout my day.
Suddenly a part of the verse will stand out to you and the Holy Spirit will give you understanding, with understanding comes with ways to apply it to your life.
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
It’s wonderful to read your Bible and to meditate on the Bible, but if we don’t do what the Bible says, then what is the point? Like the scripture says we are just fooling ourselves. It is important to obey the Word of God and do what the Bible says.
When you’re studying the Bible are you applying what you have learned in your life? Has your behavior or attitude changed? Can you see a difference in your life? You can see how effective your Bible study is by the change or impact that it is having in your life.
Put into action what you have studied, put into action the revelations that you receive from the Holy Spirit.
Being obedient to the Word can only bring about blessings in your life. You will be building your life on a solid foundation based on the Word of God. When you build on the rock then you will not sink you will be stable you will be unshakeable. You are hearing and responding to God’s word.
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
I left this step for last because I think that it may be the one that we have the most difficulty with. When you are doing what you should be doing, and you still haven’t seen any results you need to continue believing and not give up.
After you have done all, you can, you stand and never stop believing. That reminds me of a song that says don’t give up on God because He won’t give up on you. Keep on doing what is right and continue to trust God to do what He said he would do. I know that this can be hard, I have been there.
I’ve had situations that seemed like they would never end, I prayed, and fasted, believed, put action to my faith I admit sometimes I felt tired. But you know what I do when I start to feel tired, I run to the Word of God. It strengthens me, it transforms my mind from doubtful to hopeful. It reminds me of how good my God is and how much He loves me.
Believe me, there are still things in my life that I’m believing God for, but I have determined in my heart that I’m not going to allow the devil to make me lose out on my blessing because of doubt or unbelief. Don’t give him that benefit. Fight for what you know is yours and hold on to God, He will never fail you.
As Ephesians 6:10 says Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
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The key is to hold on and never give up because the Word of God says that we should not get weary in well doing because we will reap if we don’t give up. Well, if that’s what God is telling us to do, then I believe it.
So for those days when you feel close to giving up here are 5 benefits of faith that can benefit you naturally as well as spiritually for you to hold on to.
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I know, that there are countless benefits to faith in God, but I wanted to give you just a few that you could keep close for those times when you feel a little down and just need to be encouraged.
Study Bible Used - New Living Translation Daily Application Study Bible
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
I’m using the NLT Study Bible and it didn’t use the word Faith, however, it used believed which is the same thing as faith. Because of your faith, you believe that when you repent of your sins and ask Jesus into your heart, you are saved. It’s nothing tangible that you can see, but you believe it in your heart.
As a result of your salvation, you are now a child of God and receive all the benefits of a child of God according to the Bible. Most importantly you now have eternal life.
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
When you put your faith in God you believe and know according to His Word that He will never leave you or forsake you. That alone is enough to keep you strong. He told us in his Word not to be afraid or discouraged.
God gives you strength, He said that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. God knew that these were feelings that we would have throughout our lives, but we don’t have to give in to these feelings because He is with us and He is our God.
When that feeling of discouragement comes from the enemy, if your faith is fully in the Lord, you can tell the enemy to get lost because you are holding on to God’s Word. It’s so empowering to use the Word of God against satan because there is nothing that he can say or do to override the Word of God. That is a benefit of faith in God.
My favorite thing to say to the devil is shut up and leave because you know when there is a thought in your mind that comes from him and I don’t entertain his thoughts anymore, I say his thoughts because they are not my own I refuse to own them.
I remember when satan would put a negative thought in my mind and I would dwell on it and think about it all day and it would have an effect on my mood and is cause me to be weak in my faith because I was listening to the enemy.
I don’t do that anymore, it doesn’t matter where I am as soon as those thoughts enter my mind, I immediately tell him to shut up and leave, if I am in public I say it under my breath, saying it in my mind doesn’t help because satan cannot read my mind, I have to say it out loud so that he can hear it.
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith requires action and when you have faith in God you are required to move and take a step of faith. I have given this example before…let’s say you need a job and you have prayed and you are believing that God is going to provide you with a job, but you are not looking for one.
That would mean that you are expecting God to provide you with a job without doing your part of looking for one. That doesn’t work.
If you truly need a job, then you will do what is needed like sending out your resume or filling out applications, and calling companies to see if they are hiring. At that point you can say a prayer, Lord I have done my part please have someone call me for an interview and you would have faith that you will receive that call or email.
Once you receive the request for an interview, you are still required to prepare for that interview. It would be irresponsible to believe that since God provided you with the opportunity for the interview that you didn’t have to do your part to prepare. Once you prepare and go into the interview after you can then ask for the favor of God for you to receive the job.
You can see in this situation that there are still actions that we need to take that go along with our faith, we have a part to play as well.
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.
Our faith moves God to act on our behalf, that is one of the rewards of faith. As you can see in Matthew 15:28 the woman’s faith in Jesus is what caused Him to heal her daughter. He said that your faith is great, and your request has been granted.
That was the same situation with the centurion in Matthew 8, the centurion’s servant was sick, and he went to Jesus and told Jesus that he didn’t need to come to his house to heal him all he had to do was speak the Word. The centurion understood the authority that Jesus had, and Jesus healed his servant because of his faith.
What is it that you’re believing God for? He hasn’t changed all you need is faith in God.
Your faith in God can become your testimony. How amazing it would be for others to see the strength that you have because of your faith in God and as a result they too give their lives to the Lord.
As you hold on to your faith in the Lord and not waver others will see and want what you have. They will wonder why you’re not fearful, why are you joyful when everyone else is sad, where is that joy coming from…I want that.
Romans 2 says that the goodness of God leads to repentance. That means that when others see how good God is that will make them want to give their lives to him and as you continue to put your trust in God and put your faith in God others will see the rewards of faith and the benefits of faith in your life and want it for themselves. That alone should be reason enough to put your faith in God.
I pray that this was encouraging for you and that you now know the importance of faith in God, but that you also see that your faith requires action.
Are there any other benefits that you can think of?
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Where would I be? What would my life look like now? I don’t want to know.
You can learn how to develop trust in God. It’s something that we have to make a conscious decision to do daily. I know it seems hard and you wonder how can I trust God when bad things happen? But you can.
You need to realize that God is not the one that causes bad things to happen. In 1 Corinthians 14:33 KJV, it says that God is not the author of confusion, but peace.
We live in a fallen world, and we have an enemy that has a goal to steal, kill, and destroy us. God is a wonderful, loving, and faithful Father that wants nothing but the best for His children.
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It’s important to trust God because the Bible says that it is impossible to please God without faith. Faith and trust in God, are they the same thing?
According to my NLT Study Bible, Faith is reliance, loyalty, or complete trust in God.
Trust is assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of God.
We can see that trust a part of faith, so to have faith in God you need to trust God.
You should start trusting God with your future and learning how to trust God in difficult times. It’s easy to trust God when everything is going well, but what do you do when it's hard to trust God? When everything around is falling apart. That’s when you know that you really do trust and have faith in God.
I’m sure there are more than 10 reasons to have faith in God but I will give you 10 reasons to believe in God based on my experiences that I have had with the Lord.
For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does.
Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
God cannot lie, the Bible says that He honors His Word above His very name. That means that He will do what He said in His Word. You have the promises that He put in the Bible and they all belong to you, that is one of the benefits of trusting God.
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
If you are not putting your trust in God…then who are you putting your trust in? People will fail you; the governments of this world will fail you. God never fails. When you put your trust in God, you always win.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
Whose plan would you prefer to follow? God already has a plan for your life, and you can find it in His Word and through the Holy Spirit, that is the power of faith in God, you just have to trust Him.
I prefer to walk in God’s plan for my life over any plan that I may make for myself because He knows the beginning and He knows the end.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
He knows how things are going to turn out if I make a certain move. Sometimes the plans that we have for our lives seem like a good idea to us, but God knows how that plan will turn out.
Sometimes He may step in and not allow it to happen. We may feel upset and ask why should I trust God? But He could have saved your life, there are just some things that we may not know.
I can honestly say that I’ve had some of those situations happen to me. I thought I wanted something and when it didn’t happen, I was upset, but you know what, later down the line I realized that God gave me something better.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God’s love for us is like no one else could ever love us. He sent Jesus to die for us when we were still sinners. Who would send their only son to die knowing that all would not accept him? That is truly the amazing love of God.
Now once we accept Jesus to be our Lord and savior our sins are forgiven, and we now have eternal life! But that’s not it, God calls us His child, He also calls us very own possession. The NIV translation of 1 Peter 2:9 says that we are God’s special possession.
How wonderful to know that we are special to God. How would you treat someone special to you? Well, imagine how God treats someone special to Him.
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!
Did you know that even when we make mistakes, God still works on our behalf?
I have had situations that I got myself into from making bad decisions and I can truly say that Romans 8:28 is true, because God still worked out my situation for my benefit and that’s the benefit of having faith in God.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
I will be your God throughout your lifetime until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.
Just trust Him, can’t you feel the love and compassion in those verses. God wants to take care of us, He wants to provide for us, but we need to let Him, we need to receive from Him what He has said in His word. We need to understand the importance of believing in God.
Worrying is not trusting Him, He said we are more valuable to Him than the birds that He feeds. Look at what He says in Isaiah, He made you, He will take care of you, He will be with you throughout your lifetime, He will carry you along and save you. Wow-what a promise.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
So, faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.
Faith is complete trust in God. So, for you to please God you must trust Him. You must believe that He exists and that He will do what He said He would do. I included Romans 10:17 to show you how to build your faith, or how you can trust God more.
It comes through hearing the word of God and that could be through preaching, teaching, studying, meditating. This year we should all make it a point to get into the Word of God.
That is one thing that I will be focusing on studying and understanding the Bible and meditating on scriptures and asking the Holy Spirit to give me revelation and understanding into God’s word as that will help me to continually build my faith.
So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
When you trust God, you will be blessed. The same blessing that Abraham received, that alone is an amazing promise, that is one of the benefits of trusting God. If you don’t know about Abraham I advise you to do a character Bible study on him.
It will open your eyes and help you to understand the blessing that is in store for you when you put your faith in God.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
Thank God for His compassion towards us. He feels what we are going through and what we deal with. He wants to help us. Why wouldn’t you trust Him? If I was going to put my trust in anyone it would have to be someone that feels what I feel and understands what I am going through and sympathizes with it.
It is because of His compassion that we are protected and provided for. His love never fails, His compassion and mercies are new every morning, they will never run out.
These are my 10 reasons to trust God based on what I have gone through, and I can tell you that no matter the situation you are going through never stop trusting the Lord.
What was your favorite reason to Trust God?
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What I have learned to do is to hold on to these specific Bible verses about trusting God in difficult times. Speak them over your life daily. I remember times when I had to speak them multiple times a day just to make it through my day.
As I continued to speak these Bible verses about trusting God, I began to realize that my God is bigger than any problems I face.
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According to my New Living Translation Study Bible, Trusting God means assured reliance on the His character, ability, strength – to place confidence or depend on God, to rely on His truthfulness or accuracy.
We are to totally trust that God will do what He said that He would do. We rely on him knowing that He is loyal. That’s how we begin trusting God in all circumstances.
The Word of God is so powerful, and the Bible is just that, the Word of God. We must realize that we need to believe what God says to us in His Word. Using the Word of God to overcome circumstances is so important, like using Bible verses for trusting God in hard times.
God magnifies His Word over His name, We have no reason to doubt or fear because He will do what He said He would do if we focus on God, not the circumstances.
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
God tells us right here, there is no need for us to be afraid because He is always with us. He also describes Himself as our God. That shows that we have a relationship with Him.
He will be there for us in our times of need, and He will give us strength when we feel that we don’t have any left, and He will hold us up with His victorious hand. If God is holding us up and He is victorious, then we can’t lose. Those are some of the benefits of having faith in God.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
We must trust God completely, not just sometimes or when it makes sense to us because trusting God in difficult times doesn’t always make sense. We can’t just depend on our understanding because God knows more than we could ever imagine.
We should seek Him, bring any decisions to Him and ask for His leading and guidance through the Holy Spirit and His word. Sometimes we end up in bad situations because we didn’t ask God to show us which way to go, but I am so thankful for His grace and mercy.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
We may have made a few mistakes today maybe you wavered and didn’t have faith in God…but guess what? According to God’s Word, His mercies are new every morning. Perhaps you missed the mark today, tomorrow is a new day, get up and start over again.
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. 5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.
To delight in someone means that you experience joy and pleasure in their presence and in order to do that, you need to know them. Just like the Lord we need to know Him better.
Committing yourself to the Lord means to give your all over to Him and trust that He will take care of it all better than you could if you did it yourself. You need to be patient as He works everything out for you and He will because God is bigger than your problem.
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! 4 Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
Do you want peace in the midst of turmoil? Focus on God, not the circumstances. Even when things don’t look like you want them to or it seems like you have been praying forever for something that still hasn’t happened.
Just continue to keep your thoughts focused on God and His word and trust Him that’s how you can show faith in daily life. You will see the victory! Just keep repeating this to yourself “My God is bigger than any problems I face.”
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.
As this verse says, very clearly if you know Him then you will trust Him. We should all strive to develop a deeper and intimate relationship with God. As you begin to know who He is, that will build your trust in Him.
God will not leave you, now remember it doesn’t mean that life will always be a bed of roses and you won’t have any problems; it just means that no matter what you are going through He will be there with you. Keep having faith in God during hard times.
But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. 4 I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?
David turns his fear into faith. He said that when he is afraid, he trusts God, David was trusting God in tough times. That’s what we should, if we ever feel afraid, turn it over to God and trust that he will take care of it by putting your faith in him.
I love that part of the verse that David says I trust in God so why should I be afraid. And sometimes we need to talk to ourselves and say don’t you trust God…then stop being afraid. There is no need to fear when you put your complete trust in God.
We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.
Put your trust in the Lord; He is the one that can help and protect you. As you put your trust in him your heart will be glad and your mind will be at peace because you know that your heavenly father will come through for you that’s the importance of having faith in God.
“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
What an amazing verse to give you hope as you continue trusting God in tough times. I love the comparison of us to a tree that is continuously being nourished. As we trust in God we are blessed, what happens around us will not affect us, in times of trouble God will take care of us.
We are given strength for our needs, and we also produce fruit, so as we receive strength, we have more than we need to help others. Now if this verse should give you encouragement to continue trusting God in all circumstances.
This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Trusting God is a choice, this verse says, be strong, do not be afraid. These are all conscious decisions we have to make when we choose to trust the Lord. We can be confident in that decision because God is always with us, He will never leave us, He is with us wherever you go.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
This is one of my favorite verses, it is so encouraging to know that God has a plan for my life, and it is for me to succeed. God knows the future and He created the plan so if we are willing to partner with him to fulfill the plan that he has for our lives unending hope and an amazing future.
I pray that each of these verses help to build up your faith and remind you that you can trust God in all circumstances. Read, study, and meditate on these verses they will strengthen your faith and help you to understand how much God really loves you.
Which verse is your favorite? I love Jeremiah 29:11.
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Believe me, I know what it feels like when your back is against the wall and you are just waiting for God to step in and rescue you and I will share some of my experiences and how I was able to continue trusting God.
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According to the dictionary, faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
According to my NLT Study Bible, faith is reliance, loyalty, or complete trust in God.
We see that both definitions used the word trust so let's see what my NLT Study Bible has to say about what is trust in God?
Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something – to place confidence or depend, to commit or place in one’s care or keeping, to rely on their truthfulness or accuracy.
When we say that we have faith in God that is what it represents. We are to totally trust Him that He will do what He said that He would do. We need to rely on him and be loyal. That is a big one, if you are loyal to someone then you don’t turn your back on them. When we doubt God it's like we are turning our back on him and saying that He can’t be trusted to do what He said that he would do.
And this all starts with a relationship.
How can you continue trusting God in difficult times? You need to develop a relationship with Him. You can only trust someone that you have developed a relationship. We don’t randomly trust strangers…yes I know that there may be some emergencies that arise when you have to trust someone even when you don’t know them but that is pretty rare.
In our definition of trust, you know what stood out to me? The part that says assured reliance on the character of someone. You only know someone’s character if you know the person. Yes, you can go by what others tell you about the person, but that is second-hand knowledge, to truly trust someone’s character firsthand knowledge of who they are is needed, they need to have shown you something that you can say ok, I can trust this person.
It’s the same way with God. We have the Bible that shows us countless situations of God’s character. If you study the Bible, the Holy Spirit will begin to reveal the character of God to you and you will learn how to trust God completely. As you develop a closer relationship with God through prayer, praise worship, and study you will begin to know who he is.
He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.
We should aspire to develop the type of relationship that Moses had with God. I don’t just want to see God’s acts; I want to know who he is and it's at that point that true faith can be built, which will help you to have faith in God during hard times.
Ask God if there is anything in your life that is hindering you from receiving your answer or breakthrough.
There are times when there are things that we are doing or have done that can prevent us from seeing our answered prayer. Repentance is so important. We have to ensure that there is no unrepented sin or habitual sins in our lives, sometimes, it not even a sin that we are committing but it could be some type of behavior that is just not right as a child of God.
Be honest with yourself when the Holy Spirit reveals it to you acknowledge and make the change.
I’ve had situations in my life when the Holy Spirit revealed what the issue was, it took me a few days to come to terms with it. I had to be honest with myself, it's not fun when you are told that there is certain behavior that you need to stop.
The funny thing is when the Holy Spirit revealed it to me, I knew immediately that it was true. I didn’t want to acknowledge it, because changing isn’t always easy, but if it is from God then it is necessary for us to grow.
I’ll give you a few examples, maybe we had a bad reaction to a situation or a bad attitude, perhaps we treated someone wrong and without love. We know that there are people in our lives that can sometimes be hard to love, and we have to love them regardless and let the Holy Spirit teach us how to love the unlovable in our lives.
I just wanted to give a few examples of real-life situations that we all face that can sometimes be the reason that we are still waiting on God. Ask God, if there is anything that you should be doing to see your prayers answered while you are trusting him in all circumstances.
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?
Sometimes there may be a step that God wants you to take…now I am not saying that is the case for every situation that is why you will need to pray and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.
In this verse, we can see that there is some type of action that goes along with having faith in God and the Holy Spirit will reveal that to you and teach you how to have faith in God completely.
You can see that I wanted to start with ensuring that I wasn’t doing anything to prevent my prayers from being answered holding on to Go in difficult times. Now that has been taken care of, I will give you the remaining steps.
One of the best ways to continue trusting God in tough times is to remember all the other circumstances that He has already brought you through. You can take the time to write it down or you can just think about it. What have you gone through in the past that seemed like it was never going to happen?
What situations were you praying and trusting God to come through for you and He did? What happened when you let go and trust God? This is what helps to build your faith and helps you to develop a relationship with God.
And I said, “This is my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me.” 11 But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. 12 They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works. 13 O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you? 14 You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
This Psalm was written by Asaph and you can see that He was doubting God, he thought that God had turned against him because he didn’t see answered prayer. But when He started to remember how wonderful and mighty God his thoughts of doubt were turned into praise.
As you think about what God has done for you remember that he is trustworthy and capable and that will strengthen your faith and help you to trust God with all your heart. As you remember it will turn your thoughts of doubt into praise and thanksgiving. And that will help you to continue to have faith in all circumstances.
The Bible is filled with stories of men and women that trusted God in all circumstances, trusted God’s plan, and trusted God’s timing and He brought them through and delivered them. Some of those stories even included men and women that had a little doubt but God is so gracious that he still did it for them anyway.
I’ll give you a few examples to help you out.
Just to name a few.
It’s really up to you to make the choice to trust God in difficult times. You could go through all of those steps and still not trust because you didn’t make the choice to trust. God gave us free will and it is up to us to make the right decisions, He is not going to force us to trust him. Choose to trust God with all your heart.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
All those Bible verses are so uplifting but what they all have in common is that they are a choice, trust in the Lord, do not worry, do not get tired. Those are all conscious decisions that we have to make to continually trust God in all circumstances. But remember that we don’t have to do this on our own, we have the Holy Spirit.
But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.
We have a helper that we can depend on, how awesome is God that he didn’t leave us to figure it out on our own, but he sent the Holy Spirit to help us.
I pray that this was helpful for you and that you now see that you can trust God in all circumstances, He is a wonderful Father and he has a plan for your life to give you hope and a good future.
I know that a lot of times we say God come through for me and I will trust you, but perhaps God is saying to us…trust me and I will come through for you.
What point did you find most helpful? For me it was choose to trust God, so now I try to make a daily conscious decision to trust God and show faith in my daily life.
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Psalms is an amazing Book in the Bible. It is really a collection of prayers, songs, and worship to God. It is simple to learn how to pray Psalms, some chapters don’t require any change and you can pray it as is.
You can take the words from Psalms and pray them as if they were yours. Many chapters refer to the author himself, so you don’t have to modify it in any way. The most important aspect is to ensure that your heart agrees with what you are saying in order to take it as your own.
What are Psalms used for? Many use the Book of Psalms for encouragement and comfort when they are dealing with life’s struggles. David and the other authors used the Psalms to pour out their hearts to God in the midst of their misery.
They also used it to express their emotions, true human emotions and that is appealing to many because they can see that great men like David also had to go through trials; but God delivered them. It shows the life-changing friendship that they had with God, they trusted Him with all they had including their feelings.
There are songs of celebration that will bring you to new heights of joy as you sing them to the Lord. If you have never read or prayed from the Book of Psalms start today, you will discover the power of Psalms prayers.
I thank God for Psalms, that Book has brought me through many tough times in my life. Many times, when I was feeling down, I would pick up the Bible and start to read a chapter from Psalms and it would remind me of the goodness of God.
I also learned how to pray the scriptures by using Psalms to pray. It’s the easiest way to pray the word of God back to Him because you just have to read the chapters as a prayer. Every Book in the Bible is important, but Psalms has always been my go-to when I needed a prayer or needed uplifting from the scriptures.
It’s just so comforting, and to see the expression of love to God makes me want to have that same relationship with Him.
Psalms Scripture Coloring Pages
11-page printable coloring book with scriptures from the book of Psalms
David loved God and wanted an intimate relationship with Him. He wasn’t perfect, but his heart’s desire was a yarning for a deeper and closer relationship with God. That should be our desire as well.
David was anointed to be the next King in 1 Samuel 16:10-13. It is believed that he was around 15 years old at that time.
David was a shepherd and spent most of his time with the sheep worshipping the Lord. A few years after David was anointed he killed Goliath and King Saul’s jealousy for David began to grow when the women began to sing “Saul has slain 1,000’s but David 10,000’s 1 Samuel 18:5-9.
David could have given up on the promise of becoming King in the midst of all of his adversities and with King Saul’s attempts and the manhunt to take his life. David was faithful and waited on the Lord. You may be wondering “how old was David when he became King?” He was 30 years old, he waited 15 years for the promise to be fulfilled.
David knew how to worship and praise the Lord, but he also knew how to repent. He was by no means perfect, but the Bible says in Acts 13:22, But God removed Saul and replaced him with David a man about whom God said, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” We can see what pleases God, obedience.
David confesses his sins, tells God about his doubts and fears, he asks God for help, and he praised and worshipped God.
You can use the Book of Psalms for prayers for many different situations like Psalms prayers for protection and Psalms prayers for strength.
Here is a list of scripture to use when praying from Psalms.
O Lord, I have so many enemies; so many are against me. 2 So many are saying, “God will never rescue him!” 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. 4 I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain. 5 I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the Lord was watching over me. 6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surround me on every side. 7 Arise, O Lord! Rescue me, my God! Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked!
This was David’s prayer when he was fled from his son Absalom. David was king at this time and he had an army that he could depend on. But instead of depending on men, he cried out to God for help.
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you, My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.
This was a prayer of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. David’s desire is for God’s presence, provision, and protection.
As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.
This Psalm was not written by David but I love this verse. Deer’s depend on water to live, that is the same way that we need to depend on God. Anyone who longs and desires and seeks to know God better will find Him and develop or restore their relationship with God.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
David is asking God to search his heart. Let this be our prayer. We should ask God to point out what things there may be in our lives that need to be changed.
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
This was David’s cry to God for mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing.
We can use these genuine cries for help, requests for forgiveness, and shouts of praise and worship to lead us into a closer and deeper relationship with God.
It’s wonderful to learn how to pray the scripture because we are simply praying the Word of God back to Him. We are praying the will of God for our lives. Use His word, it is one of the most powerful tools that we have as believers.
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I wanted to know how to pray to God and how to develop a consistent prayer life free from frustration. Do you know when I finally able to reach the point where I felt that I had a fulfilled prayer life? It was when I started praying the scriptures.
You may be wondering why should we pray Bible verses? I am going to give you 4 reasons that will help you to understand the importance of praying God’s word.
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Prayer is how you communicate with God. It's having a conversation with your Heavenly Father. You can develop your relationship with God by talking to Him, just like any other relationship you have with your family, friends…etc.
You need to talk to God and tell Him how you feel, what you need, and you also need to worship Him, give Him thanks and praise. He should be the first one that you run to in any situation. God wants to hear from you, He longs to have an intimate relationship with you.
The Bible says in 1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
You need to pray according to the will of God, and the will of God can be found in the Word of God…the Bible. That’s one reason I love praying the Word of God back to Him. I know that if I am praying the scriptures, then He hears me because that is what it says in 1 John 5.
When you learn how to pray according to the Bible, you don’t have to be concerned that you are praying amiss because you are not using your own words, you are using the Word of God.
Praying the scriptures is an amazing way to pray for yourself, for others, and even for healing. Here are some scriptures to use when praying.
Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths.
Prayer – I pray that my husband will trust in you with all his heart and not try to figure things out on his own. That he would acknowledge you Lord and that you will direct his path.
Acts 26:18 - To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Prayer – Heavenly Father I ask that you open (loved one's name) eyes that (loved one's name) would turn from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God.
1 Peter 2:24 - Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Prayer – Jesus you took my sins so that I would be dead to sin and live for righteousness, I believe that by Your stripes I was healed.
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Praying Bible verses is such an amazing way to pray because you are inserting yourself into the scripture. You start to realize that God’s word is for you and it becomes personal and it helps you to develop an intimate relationship with the Lord.
We all want to live according to God’s plan for our lives. The Bible outlines what God’s will is for the believers. When I use to pray, I wasn’t praying according to the will of God for my life which resulted in frustration and unanswered prayers.
I didn’t realize that all I needed to do was to search the scriptures and use those verses and start praying God’s word. If you are struggling with your prayer life use the Word of God. What better way to pray than to use the Words that God gave to us.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.
It’s evident what the will of God is for each of our lives. You can use those same scriptures in your prayer time and pray them back to God. You will begin to see that when start praying Bible verses you are praying with expectation because you know that this is the plan that God has for you and you pray anticipating that your prayers will be answered.
Hebrews 4:16 says So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
When I use to pray, I never came boldly to God. I was hesitant in my prayers, not knowing if God was listening or if what I was asking would happen. I had no confidence in my prayers. I contemplated many times if it was even worth it for me to pray. After all, I honestly felt like I was just going through the motions because I felt that I had to pray as a believer.
Is that a good reason to pray, because I felt I had to? What good was that? I’m sure that God knew my heart and how I felt. Thank God for His grace and mercy.
As I began to learn more about the importance of praying the scriptures, I no longer prayed because I felt like I had to. I was excited to pray, I had confidence in my prayers, and I could approach God boldly because I knew that my prayer was in line with His word, which is His will.
I realized that to pray Bible verses I needed to know which Bible verses to use. It is so important to understand the Bible by studying it. Ensure that you are taking time out of your day not only to pray but also to study and read the Word of God because it will help you to understand the scriptures.
How amazing is that when you start praying God’s Word, He hears you because you are praying the Bible. What is His will? His will is His word. When we pray for anything according to His word then He hears us. It is an awesome feeling knowing that God hears you when you pray.
You don’t have to have any doubt in your mind because you know that he hears you because that is what the Bible says, and we believe it unconditionally.
It doesn’t matter if it hasn’t manifested in your life as yet, that doesn’t change what the Word of God says. We believe it no matter what, we believe it because God said it and He cannot lie.
Do you know that Psalm 138:2 says that God magnifies His Word above His name? That should be comforting to you to know that the Word of God has the final say in your life. When I realized this truth, it brought me closer to God, I stopped questioning everything and started to take Him at His word.
Regardless of how my situation may have looked, I finally started to understand what it meant to walk by faith and not by sight. My faith grew as I began to exercise it by using it.
I can only speak from my own experience, but I know once I started praying the scriptures, I found passion in my prayer life. I no longer prayed, just because I felt it was the Christian thing to do, I was praying because I felt passionate about my time with God.
Praying the scriptures was like a starting point for me and it brought about so many wonderful things in my prayer life. As I became more confident and my passion grew, I could now feel the leading of the Holy Spirit during my prayer time.
It was like a step-by-step process for me. I know that we all want everything instant, but it’s a relationship that begins to flourish so it does take time. The beautiful thing is that all though I had these scriptures written down and I prayed them, the Holy Spirit would now start to lead me in prayer and bring to my thoughts other scriptures that I could pray for a specific situation and even for others.
I hope that you can see why I am so passionate about praying the scriptures and that I have answered the question “Why Should We Pray Bible Verse?" It’s not the only way to pray, but it's what got me out of my slump when I didn’t know what to say, and it's been such an amazing experience. Now I can pray God’s blessing and His purpose over my life and the lives of others using His word.
Do you pray the scriptures? If not, will you start praying the Word of God over your life? Let me know in the comments, I would love to know what your go-to scriptures are for prayer.
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What determines if a prayer is powerful? Do you have to use a lot of big words? Should you shout? I think that a powerful prayer is one that gets answered. 1 John 5:14-15 NKJV Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
How do you pray a powerful prayer? By praying the will of God. As the verse says that if we pray according to His will…His will is the Bible, the Word of God.
There are so many scriptures to use when praying, especially in the book of Psalms. David was always praying and worshiping God. You can use scriptures that line up with what you are requesting. That is a good way to determine if you are praying according to God’s will.
Find 3-5 scriptures that back up what you are asking God to do for you, then use those scriptures as your prayers by personalizing them. Insert yourself into the scripture, it is such an amazing feeling when you realize that God’s Word is for you. It makes you feel closer to God and helps you to develop a closer intimate relationship with Him.
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I’m going to give you specific examples of prayers that will teach you how to pray the Word of God. Prayers for yourself and others in your life, and many different situations so you will know how to pray to God effectively using His Word.
I have always prayed for my children, my spouse, family, and loved ones. But I prayed the regular, Lord, protect, bless them, but I would quickly run out of things to pray. I didn’t realize that there were scriptures I could use when praying for others. That’s the power of praying the scriptures, it’s not just reserved for you.
You might not know exactly what to say when praying for someone, but you may know of situations in their life that needs a change. You can then search the Bible for scriptures that relate to the situation and insert their name into the scripture when praying. You should use wisdom and always ask the Holy Spirit for guidance.
Luke 4:10 NLT – He will order His angels to protect and guard you.
Prayer – Lord I ask that you send your Angels to protect and guard my children.
Proverbs 2:5 NLT- Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
Prayer - Lord I pray that my children will understand the fear of the Lord and who you really are.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT- The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Prayer - Heavenly Father I pray that my husband will not suffer more temptation than he can handle, thank you for always providing a way out for Him.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths.
Prayer – I pray that my husband will trust in you with all his heart and not try to figure things out on his own. That he would acknowledge you Lord and that you will direct his path.
Acts 26:18 NLT- To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Prayer – Heavenly Father I ask that you open (loved one's name) eyes that (loved one's name) would turn from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God.
2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT - In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Lord satan has blinded the mind of (loved one's name) let the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of You, shine on (loved one's name)
I've had to deal with many situations that I needed deliverance from the Lord, and He has always come through for me. One thing that was constant in each situation was I prayed the Word of God back to Him. You need to speak the Word of God over your life.
You may be dealing with a situation and need the Lord to deliver you, it may seem hopeless and out of control. Maybe you don’t know what to say or how to pray for what you need. The Bible is filled with scriptures that you can pray and declare to receive your deliverance. God’s will is not for us to be bound. In Luke 10:19 Jesus said that He gave us authority over serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.
Isaiah 54:14 NLT - In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Prayer - Lord establish me in your righteousness, keep me far away from oppression and evil.
Philippians 4:6-7 NLT - Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Prayer - Heavenly Father help me not to be anxious or to worry, but to pray and thank you for what I need. I pray that your peace that passes all understanding will protect my heart and mind.
Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT - Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.
Prayer - Heavenly Father help me not to be afraid or discouraged thank you for going ahead of me and not leaving me.
Philippians 4:8 NLT- Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Prayer – Lord as I keep my thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, uplift my spirit.
Galatians 4:7 NLT - Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Prayers – Lord your word says, I am no longer a servant, but a child of God and an heir through Christ Jesus, help me to see myself the way you see me, Father.
1 Peter 2:9 NLT- But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Prayers – Lord help me to know who I am in you, I am chosen, and special to you. I have been called out of darkness into your marvelous light.
It is God’s will to heal you. Some people believe that sickness is brought on by God as a punishment or to teach them a lesson. That is a deception from the enemy. If you had a child would you make your child sick to teach them a lesson? I know that I wouldn’t and the love that God has for us is greater than the love that we could ever have for our children.
God is a loving father and would not make His children sick to punish them.
Isaiah 53:5 NLTsays that Jesus was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
Before you can receive healing, you need to believe that God wants to and is willing to heal you. Mark 11:24 NLT says I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. You can use the scriptures to pray repeatedly, but you have to believe when you pray.
Here are a few scriptures to use when praying for healing.
1 Peter 2:24 NLT - Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Prayer – Jesus you took my sins so that I would be dead to sin and live for righteousness, I believe that by Your stripes I was healed.
Psalm 107:20 NLT - He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Prayer – Thank you Lord for sending your word and healing me and delivering me from destructions.
Jeremiah 30:17 NLT - For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord.
Prayer – Thank you Lord for restoring health to me and for healing me of all sickness.
Praying the scriptures is such a powerful way to pray. When you learn how to pray the Word of God back to him it gives you confidence in your prayers because you know that God hears you and you are praying according to His will.
Do you pray the scriptures? If not, will you start praying the Word of God over your life? Let me know in the comments, I would love to know what your go-to scriptures are for prayer.
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I remember when I was trying to figure out how to pray to God effectively, it seemed impossible at the time. I would sit there during my prayer time feeling so defeated, feeling like I must be doing something wrong to be in this position. I started to condemn myself because I felt that the problem had to be with me…what was I doing wrong?
That night when I was listening to an evangelist talk about praying God’s word, it was like a light bulb went off in my mind. I felt in my spirit that was the missing piece…I wasn’t praying the scriptures. I knew at that moment that I had to find out how to pray God’s word.
What is praying the word of God? I began to research and discovered the basic steps. Praying the Bible is simply using scriptures to shape your prayer.
I love to have steps that teach me how to do things. I’m the type of person that needs an explanation on how to do something for it to make sense. That’s why I came up with 3 secrets that will help you to learn how to pray the Bible.
I’m going to teach you to how to pray the word of God, so you don’t have to deal with the frustration of not knowing what to say when you pray using these three secrets.
I used to go into my prayer time, having no idea what it was that I needed or wanted from God. I never thought about it. I needed to start taking time to think about it so that I could start to pray to God effectively.
I know…this made me feel as if I was asking too much from God as if I was just being selfish. I didn’t realize that my Heavenly Father was interested in all of the details of my life and wanted me to ask for what I needed or what I wanted. This step was required so that I could begin praying strategic prayers.
How can you pray the will of God? You do it by praying through scripture. The will of God is laid out in the scriptures, it's up to us to search it out and pray it back to God.
As you follow these 9 steps it will empower you to learn the basic steps of praying the scripture, so you no longer have to deal with the frustration of not knowing what to say when you pray.
Doesn’t God already know what I need? Why would I have to tell him? Before I understood that I had to know what I wanted from God, I felt frustrated during my prayer time. I wanted to learn how to develop a consistent prayer life, but how could I when I didn’t know what to say when I was praying?
Most of my prayer time was spent feeling frustrated and defeated. I had no idea how to pray to God effectively. I would put aside time during my day to pray because I know as a Christian, I needed to spend time with God, but I knew I didn’t have a successful prayer life. There was a disconnect and a void between me and God.
I didn’t realize that I had to know what I needed and what I wanted from God. You need to have an idea of what it is that you want from the Lord before you can start praying scripture. God is all-seeing and all-knowing, He knows your hearts desires and everything that you will ever want, but you still need to ask.
Matthew 7:7-8 Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened unto you. For everyone that seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
Take the time to think about your life and what’s going on, what seems to be happening that is contrary to the word of God. What about your needs? Do you have a family member or loved ones that need to be saved? Do you need a job or perhaps a car?
It’s ok to ask God for what you want. Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desires. Knowing your needs and wants brings you a step closer to praying scripture.
Write what down? You need to write down what you have discovered is as your needs and your wants. This is a very important step. I love to write things down because it’s a reminder and once on paper I won’t forget. Secondly when I write it down it becomes something that I now want to accomplish. This step may seem insignificant, but when I did it, it was very helpful.
My prayers had no direction. It became very tiring to go into my prayer time not knowing how to pray to God. At this point, I had an idea of what I wanted from the Lord, but I wasn’t praying strategic and specific prayers. It would be like calling a friend and saying I need help, but not telling them what the problem was and what you needed them to do.
Re-visit your list that you made for your needs and wants and be descriptive. God cares about every little detail in your life. Habakkuk 2:2 And the Lord answered me, and said, write the vision and make it plain.
Once you decide to get specific about what you want from God, you begin to develop a deeper relationship with Him; it brings you closer to praying the word of God back to Him because you are trusting Him with the secret desires of your heart by being specific.
If you don’t understand God’s will for your life you can live defeated in many areas, because your prayers may be contrary to the word of God. You need to have an understanding of the scriptures and God’s will for your life.
If you are praying for healing and you pray “Lord if it's your will please heal me”, that is praying contrary to God’s word. 1 Peter 2:24 He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds we are healed. A praying the scripture example would be, “Lord I know that it is your will to heal me because you said in your word, by your stripes I am healed, thank you for healing me.”
Find 3-5 scriptures that support what you are requesting from the Lord. This step is essential, you need to ensure that your requests line up with God’s word. You could use the concordance in your Bible, a Bible app, or Google search to find scripture verses that relate to your request.
Don’t skip this step, it is very important. 1 John 5:14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Finding scriptures that support what you are asking God for builds your confidence in your prayer and helps you to pray to God effectively.
Once you have found the scriptures that you need to back up your requests write them in your prayer journal next to your requests.
Now you get to personalize the scriptures. You are a child of God these scriptures and promises belong to you. This is such an amazing experience when you put yourself into the scripture verses. You begin to realize that God’s word is for you.
This is where you begin praying the word of God back to Him. Proverbs 3:6 Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. Now you know what you need and want, you have the scriptures to back it up and you have personalized it, now you get to pray it back to God. You can pray without being concerned that you are praying amiss. You can pray with confidence.
Joshua 1:8 Keep this book of the law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Ask the Holy Spirit for revelation as you meditate on the scriptures.
The Holy Spirit is the one that gives revelation into the word of God. This is the only way that we can truly understand it and apply it to our lives. Meditation on God’s word brings clarity, revelation and it also helps with memorization. You need God to give you insight and wisdom into His word as it will help to guide you in your life.
Once you implement these 9 steps, it will help you to develop a closer relationship with God and you’ll no longer feel frustrated during your prayer time as you begin to pray the scriptures back to Him.
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In my experience, there are two situations where you could find yourself waiting on God.
Both require patience and commitment, but my focus will be on the second point when you are waiting for God to answer your prayer.
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I have had countless situations when I was waiting on the Lord to provide for me. I remember I wanted a work from home job because my travel time per day to work was about 3-4 hours depending on the traffic.
I was praying and seeking the Lord and while I waited some opportunities came my way, but because I was sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit I knew it was not for me. However, when the right job came along I knew right away and the best thing that I did was wait. If I had jumped ahead and taken the others that came along I would have regretted it because it would have been out of God’s will.
A benefit of waiting on the Lord…it can draw you closer to Him and make you more sensitive to His leading. Waiting on the Lord keeps you from making mistakes and getting into situations based on emotions and desperation.
Best of all waiting on the Lord ensures that you are in His will. Jeremiah 29:11 for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Wait on the Lord, His plan for you is good!
Many waited on the Lord in the Bible, but let’s take a look at Abraham, Sarah, and David.
Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. According to Genesis 12:4, Abraham was 75 years old.
God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, but Abraham had to wait. While waiting he listened to Sarah and had a baby with Hagar, Genesis 16, but that was not God’s will. Ishmael was not the promised one it was Isaac. It wasn’t until Genesis 18:10-15 that the Lord appeared confirming that Sarah would have Isaac. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born Genesis 21:5.
If we get impatient, we can design our plan and no longer be in the will of God. Abraham waited 25 years for the promise to be fulfilled in his life. When waiting on the Lord we must be patient and continue to have faith in what God has promised regardless of what the outside factors look like. We walk by faith, not by sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7.
David was anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:10-13. It is believed that David was around 15 years old when he was anointed.
King Saul’s jealousy for David began when David killed Goliath and the women began to sing…”Saul has slain 1,000’s but David 10,000’s, 1 Samuel 18:5-9.
David could have given up on the promise of becoming King in the midst of all of his adversities, with Saul’s attempts and the manhunt to take his life. David was faithful and waited on the Lord, he was 30 years old when he became king over Israel 2 Samuel 5:1-4.
These are two great examples of waiting on the Lord in the Bible. We need to stay in the will of God to fulfill the plans he has for our lives.
It’s imperative that we do not become frustrated while waiting on God. This frustration can cause us to step out of God’s will for our lives. This is what Satan wants.
The word of God says that Satan came to steal kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we would have life and have it more abundantly, John 10:10. Let’s choose to have the abundant life that God has planned for us.
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Heavenly Father, I ask that you would give me revelation into your word, give me understanding because then I will pray according to your will. Holy Spirit lead and guide me into the direction that God has for me. Teach me to have the fruit of the spirit according to Galatians 5:22-23 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Help me to always stay in the will of God, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
If you are not a believer and you want to receive forgiveness for your sins or if you were a believer and you strayed away from God, repeat this prayer.
Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me and cleanse me. Set me free. Jesus, thank You that You died for me. I believe that You have risen from the dead and that You’re coming back again for me. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me a passion for the lost, a hunger for the things of God, and a holy boldness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m saved; I’m born again, I’m forgiven and I’m on my way to Heaven because I have Jesus in my heart. Amen.
Congratulations you are saved! Now that you have accepted Jesus into your heart, find a Bible-believing church, and attend regularly, so that you can grow in your knowledge and faith in God. Pray daily, read the Bible, go to church, and tell someone that you accepted Jesus into your heart. Please email me at nichole@rosemariesheart.com and let me know so that I can pray for you.
Now that you know what to do while waiting on God, I wanted to add one more thing...you can add praying the scriptures to your prayer life while waiting on God.
Get my FREE "How To Pray The Scriptures Step-By-Step Guide."
Let me ask you a question:
Do you feel frustrated with your prayer life? Do you want to spend time in prayer, but just don't know what to say? You love the Lord and want to have a deeper relationship with Him? You want to pray according to the will of God for your life?
If That's You, I Have Created The "How To Pray The Scriptures Step-By-Step Guide" Just For You.
The How To Pray The Scriptures Step-By-Step Guide empowers Christians to learn the basic steps of praying the scriptures, so they no longer have to deal with the frustration of not knowing what to say.
Learning these steps has helped me to overcome frustration and to build a powerful prayer life.
Get my FREE How To Pray The Scriptures Guide Here.
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There may be many reasons why you won’t forgive, I am going to give you a few.
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So, your husband or your child did something that was really disappointing to you. They have apologized and hoped that the apology would make the situation better, but it hasn’t. That’s because you have chosen not to forgive them so you can always have something over their head.
It’s controlling. By throwing it constantly back at them, they feel guilty and always in debt to you. You can use it as manipulation to get what you want from them. As a result, they will try to win your trust or forgiveness by giving gifts and in other materialistic ways.
Here’s something that we might say, “I want to forgive, but if I do that means that I am okay with what they did.” That is a lie from Satan. He has used this to blind you from the truth.
Forgiving someone does not mean that you are okay with what they did. Forgiveness is for your benefit. Once you
Your best friend betrayed you yes, your best friend. You are so hurt and upset, but you want to forgive the person. You are holding back because you think that once you forgive them you now should start having coffee or lunch with that person.
That is not true. You can forgive someone without continuing the relationship. Why would you put yourself back into a situation to be hurt again?
These are all misconceptions when forgiving someone you shouldn’t be concerned about how they feel. You should only be concerned about the fact that it will benefit you and that it’s for your own good. Forgiveness will free you from the weight and at that moment you release it to God.
Psychologists define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.
Forgiveness does not mean forgetting, nor does it mean condoning or excusing
I heard someone say that “unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” This is so true.
Forgiveness is a choice, it may be a hard choice and it may seem impossible, but the bottom line is, it’s up to you to make the decision to forgive. It’s not a decision based on how you may feel, because the flesh is at war with the spirit, the flesh wants to do what feels good and that is usually what we shouldn’t do.
You will need to side with your spirit and bring your flesh under control. Galatians 5:16 KJV This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
I will tell you what I do in order to forgive and this has worked for me.
We know that there are physical benefits for forgiveness, but there are also spiritual benefits.
When we forgive someone we are being obedient to the word of God. It is important that we obey the commands of the Lord.
1 Samuel 15:22 KJV Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Being obedient shows that we love and trust the Lord that what His word says is for our own good.
Forgiving someone shows that you are strong spiritually. The flesh would stay in a state of anger and bitterness, but forgiveness shows that you are walking after the spirit.
Your Spirit man is greater and has dominion over the flesh. You never know how this may affect others that are watching, it could be a great testimony.
If you are holding a grudge and bitterness against another person, your prayers will not be answered. Sometimes we may wonder why our prayers seem to go unanswered, in those situations we need to check our heart to see if we are harboring any unforgiveness and bitterness.
If we do not forgive others then God will not forgive us for our sins. That is a scary thought, that alone should make us want to forgive right away.
Mark 11:25 KJV And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15 KJV For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mark 11:23-25 KJV For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that you have received them, and ye shall have them. 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Matthew 18:21-22 KJV Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I have to forgive him? Till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times: but until seventy times seven.
We can use the Bible as an example of forgiveness. There are many stories in the Bible where forgiveness was given, even in very hard situations.
Luke 15:11-32 KJV tells the story of a man that had two sons, the younger wanted his share of the estate, so the father divided it in half and gave him his portion. The son left and squandered his wealth irresponsibly and was left with nothing.
After a while, the son returned home and said to the father that he was no longer worthy to be his son and that he sinned against him. The father immediately forgave him and had a big feast for him.
Genesis 37-50 KJV tells the story of Joseph…to sum it up. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him. They sold him as a slave to some merchants and was taken to Egypt, his brothers faked his death. Joseph went through many trials and ended up in prison due to a false accusation.
God’s hand was on him and he was brought from the prison to the palace due to his gift of interpreting dreams. There was a famine and because of Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams, they stored up enough food that they were able to sell to others during that time.
Canaan was also affected by the famine and this is where his family lived. His brothers came to him for grain but did not recognize it was him, but he knew it was them. Through many different circumstances, it came down to the point where Joseph forgave them and was reunited with his family.
Now you can see the Importance Of Forgiveness In The Bible. You can also see how important forgiveness is for our physical health, but also for our spiritual health. Jesus did the greatest act of forgiveness when he said father forgive them for they know not what they do after he was beaten and tortured.
What love, what obedience! That alone should be the only example we need to make the decision to forgive. Jesus suffered and died for us although we didn’t deserve it so that we could have eternal life.
He forgave us of our sins and remembers them no more according to Isaiah 43:25 KJV. As a result, we need to forgive others no matter what the situation may be, just look to the cross and remember what Jesus did for you.
Heavenly Father, help me to forgive, give me a heart of love and soften my heart. Help me to always remember how much you love me that you sent Jesus to die so that I might receive forgiveness. Thank you, Heavenly Father I believe that I have received what I asked for, in the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
If you are not a believer and you want to receive forgiveness for your sins or if you were a believer and you strayed away from God, repeat this prayer.
Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me and cleanse me. Set me free. Jesus, thank You that You died for me. I believe that You have risen from the dead and that You’re coming back again for me. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me a passion for the lost, a hunger for the things of God and a holy boldness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m saved; I’m born again, I’m forgiven and I’m on my way to Heaven because I have Jesus in my heart. Amen.
Congratulations you are saved! Now that you have accepted Jesus into your heart, find a Bible-believing church, and attend regularly, so that you can grow in your knowledge and faith in God. Pray daily, read the Bible, go to church, and tell someone that you accepted Jesus into your heart. Please email me at nichole@rosemariesheart.com and let me know so that I can pray for you.
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The Importance Of Forgiveness Printable Prayer Journal
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Easter is when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again on the 3rd day. That’s probably how a lot of believers would sum it up, but it means so much more.
Let me tell you what Easter means to me. This is one of the times when I reflect on what Jesus did for me. I think about the crown of thorns that was put on His head that pierced through His flesh for my peace of mind. I think about the whipping that He took on his back for my sickness, pain, health.
I think about the nails that they put in His hands and his feet. I think about His blood that was shed for me to wash away my sins. I also think about the 3rd day…what we call Resurrection Sunday! That is when Jesus defeated death. The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus went to hell, and He made a public show of satan. He took the keys of death, hell, and the grave! Because Jesus lives I too will live forever!
Romans 4:25 NLT He was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life to make us right with God.
Galatians 3:13 NLT But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung on the cross, He took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Jesus died to take away our sins and to reconcile us back to God. God was willing to give His only begotten Son so that we could be part of the family of God. Jesus became the sacrificial lamb for us so that once and for all He shed His blood for all sins. No need for us to sacrifice an actual lamb because Jesus was that lamb. John 1:29 NLT Then next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
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John 11:25-26 NLT Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never die.”
Because of the resurrection, we know that Jesus conquered death, and when the rapture takes place the Bible says that the dead in Christ will rise first. Because of the resurrection, we will live forever. It doesn’t matter what life brings…the resurrection gives us hope for the future
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It also shows us the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Romans 8:11 NLT The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you.
You have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead inside of you! That means that you have the power to overcome anything that satan sends your way. Remember that through your daily life, we don’t have to put up with any of satan’s mess, we have the power to overcome the works of the devil.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins, He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
When Jesus had tasted it, He said, “It is finished?” Then He bowed his head and gave up His Spirit.
But God released Him from the horrors of death and raised Him back to life, for death could not keep Him in its grip.
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Jesus told her. “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will life, even after dying.”
We all know about the blood, we are aware of the crucifixion and how Jesus shed his blood for us. But do we know the significance of the blood of Jesus? Have we been applying it to our everyday lives?
Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood so that we could have forgiveness of sin. Ephesians 1:7 NLT He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.
Once we become a believer and we repent of our sins we are forgiven! We are not condemned for our past sins, the Bible says that God remembers them no more. So keep that in mind when satan tries to bring up your past that you have already confessed to the Lord and have been forgiven! You can rebuke Him and say that your past is under the blood!
Jesus took the stripes on this back for our sickness, our pain, and our health. Isaiah 53:5 NLT But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be made whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
Each of those stripes that He took on His back was for our healing. Emotional and physical sickness…fear, torment, disease, even a cold. Accept His healing for everything, not just the big things. Exercise your faith that even the common cold has no business in your body because Jesus took the stripes for all sicknesses.
He also took it for our overall health. We don’t have to be sick to thank Jesus for the stripes that He took. We can thank Him for the stripes that He took that enabled us to have a healthy life that is free from sickness.
I’m not sure how many realize that the blood of Jesus protects us. Every day, I speak the blood of Jesus over my children, my husband, my family, and myself, my house, my car…. That is the only protection that I am absolutely confident in. Exodus 12:13 NLT But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.
This plague of death will not touch you. Israel had the blood on the door and the plague of death could not touch them.
Imagine that for yourself, you have the blood of Jesus! Use it, apply it to your life. Use it in all situations speak the blood of Jesus over yourself when you wake up, when you go to sleep, during the day…at all times. The Blood still works, it still protects.
With the blood of Jesus, we have power over satan. Revelation 12:11 NLT And they defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. When Jesus shed His blood on the cross the victory was won over sin, as He took our place.
The enemy was already defeated at that time and he is still defeated. Speak the blood of Jesus against satan, He can’t stand against the blood. I tell him, “satan the blood of Jesus is against you.” He is powerless against the blood of Jesus. We are victorious through the shed blood of Jesus Christ!
I began by asking the question…do we truly know The Importance Of The Cross? I hope that I have brought some clarity and revealed how important the cross is. Without Jesus’ death and resurrection, there would be no forgiveness of sin. 1Corinthians 15:14-17 NLT And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
And we apostles would all be lying about God for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
Praise the Lord that we don’t have to imagine a life without the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. We can live a victorious and prosperous life knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we are on our way to Heaven! John 10:10 KJV The Thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
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Heavenly Father help me to always remember the importance of the cross and to apply the blood of Jesus to my life. I thank you for sending Jesus to die for me so that I could have eternal life. Thank you for being a wonderful and loving Father.
If you are not a believer and you want to receive forgiveness for your sins or if you were a believer and you strayed away from God, repeat this prayer.
Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me and cleanse me. Set me free. Jesus, thank You that You died for me. I believe that You have risen from the dead and that You’re coming back again for me. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me a passion for the lost, a hunger for the things of God, and a holy boldness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m saved; I’m born again, I’m forgiven and I’m on my way to Heaven because I have Jesus in my heart. Amen.
Congratulations you are saved! Now that you have accepted Jesus into your heart, find a Bible-believing church and attend regularly, so that you can grow in your knowledge and faith in God. Pray daily, read the Bible, go to church, and tell someone that you accepted Jesus into your heart. Please email me at nichole@rosemariesheart.com and let me know so that I can pray for you.
Now you know the importance of the cross, but do you know the importance of prayer?
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