For A Purpose

You are beautiful, creative, humble, honest, made in God’s wonderful image. When you doubt who you are and whether you are worth it, remember: God made you you are for reason! You were made in God’s image for a purpose. God gave you your skills and hobbies for a bigger reason. Just think: what can you do to help those around you using your abilities? Can you help them move towards the faith?

For example, God has given me a love for music and writing. I have used my writing skills here on this blog, and I have written over thirty christian songs that I love to sing for his glory.

You might find that you don’t know what you are good at. Start with talking. tell your friends about church. Invite them to a service with you. Offer assistance with questions and thoughts they have. I have heard of people getting baptized after times like this.

I hope that this shines a new light on your attitude about faith-sharing. It’s not all missionary and church work- it can be something you do with your friends, colleagues, and family members.

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God is Intentional

Jesus fulfills every single prophecy in the old testament about him. From Isaiah 9:6 to Psalm 22:1, God has it set in stone that Jesus was:

1- going to be born of a virgin

2- would be born in Bethlehem

3- would be a Nazerene

4- would be born of the line of David

Just to name a few. But something strikes me:

In Matthew 1:1-17 there is a genealogy of the line of David. He says that there are 14 men from Abraham to David, 14 men from David to the exile in Babylon, and 14 men from the exile in Babylon to Jesus.

Now, this isn’t entirely correct because three of the men are left out. They were kings that were said to have been from adulterous beginnings, so they were left out. This is in between Joram and Uzziah (v. 8).

In Hebrew, David’s name is spelled D V D. D is the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet and V is the sixth. 4+6+4=14- 14 people for each section.

So therefore, God is intentional.

God is Hope

I recently attended a Christmas choir concert in which my grandfather was preforming. One of the songs, called ”Hope Has A Name,” struck me:

“Hope has a name

give him great praise!

Emmanuel!”

I realized that while we label Jesus as our redeemer, we are really seeking the salvation. We might say, ”one day it will be better,” or ”someday everything will be fixed.” we are looking forward to salvation and perfection, not the prospect that Jesus is our salvation and perfection!

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” -Titus 2:11-14

• Hebrews 10:23
• 1 Peter 1:3

God is our hope! He is the one who will save us! He is Jesus, the one who has already redeemed us!

God is Love

“God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” – 1 John 3:16 (ESV)

The entire reason we love is because God loved us first. When we hear what love is in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, we know that God is also that. Because we are made in the image of God, our divine instinctive nature is to be good and helpful and kind. Galatians 5:22-23, the fruits of the spirit.

This holiday season, who can you love on that is hurting, sad, mourning? Send them something like a bible verse or a card. Snail mail is always loved and appreciated, especially because it’s unexpected. Help somebody near you feel the love of Jesus this Christmas.

God Is Just

God is just with what He does. When He found that the world was evil and wanted to destroy everything on the earth, He was just to us and let Noah and his family take refuge on an ark with two of every animal.

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted the He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart… But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” -Genesis 6:5-6, 8 (ESV)

The Lord made a covenant with Noah, that he would be merciful: the rainbow.

God was just with Abraham and Sarah with their laughing and doubts, with Moses with his stage fright, and with the world and their sin. God gave us Jesus so we could love and be with Him.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life.”

Happy December

Today is the first of December! There are twenty-four days until Christmas, and I bet most of us are working on buying, making, or asking for things to put under the tree.

And while that stuff is fun and exciting, my goal this month is to help us all turn towards Christ this Christmas. Each Sunday of Advent (the first one was November 28th, I’m sorry I missed it), I will be presenting a post about the attributes of God. Tomorrow will we last Sunday’s post. I apologize for missing it, I had some family activities that kept me busy.

• God is Just
• God is Love
• God is Hope
• God is Intentional

Blessings

In this week of thanksgiving, I hope we all are able to define our blessings. Sometimes our blessings are actually found in our curses; sometimes we recognize them immediately.

Take Thanksgiving, for example. Some see it as an annoying excuse to get together with family; some love seeing their relations. Some people want to order pizza; some want to roast the turkey themselves.

Whether we’re staying home for the holidays or are traveling for five hours, it’s important we keep our eyes set on God (as well as the road). Thanksgiving is the way to go. We should thank him for everything- ups, downs, and in-betweens.

• Psalm 69:30
• Psalm 147:7
• Ephesians 5:4
• Philippians 4:6
• Philemon 1:4
• Colossians 2:6-7
• 1 Thessalonians 3:9

When you feel down…

God will always be there for you. That’s just that. However, it might feel like He’s forgotten you sometimes. Yesterday was hard for me, and today I feel tired, grumpy, and done with the world. It’s a natural habit for me to act negatively and be a pessimist when I feel this way and I have often brought my mental pain down on my family.

I have always loved Psalm 23, and today I share it in hope that it encourages you like it does for me.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his names sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

For you are with me;

Your rod and your staff,

They comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

In the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Even in the valleys of our sadness, in the green pastures of our rejoicing, God is there, watching over us.

John 9:1-3

Giving Thanks

Giving thanks. We all do that, right? It’s polite to say, “No, but thanks anyway,” more than just plain “no” is. We send flocks of thank-you cards to people every anniversary, Christmas, and birthday. What are the magic words? Please and thank you.

But when we pray, do we say, “Thank you God for that easy test, for the great breakfast this morning, for that encouraging word from a friend”? Sometimes… but more often, does it come out, “I wish you would have given me an A on that test, I don’t want this for dinner tonight, nobody likes me- why can’t I be different”? Let’s face it: humans are sort of complainers.

When I pray in front of people, I have a list of things to say: “God, thank you for this day, and for our food, and for this opportunity to come together today.” Then I list off certain needs, requests, wants, and wishes. After that, I might say something like “In your son’s name we pray, amen.” and that’s that. Praying done.

How much of the actual praying is devoted to thanking God? One sentence. One sentence that could be spread to the entire prayer, like: “Thank you God for giving me the opportunity to learn, and for having nutritious food to eat when some around the world do not. Thank you for this friend, when they spoke to me today it was just what I needed to keep going.”

To turn this back to scripture, I would like to recommend these few verses: Philippians 4:6, Psalm 147:7, and 2 Cor 9:11.

Let’s try, the rest of this month, to glorify and praise and give thanks to the Lord with every prayer we pray.

Finding Time

I know it’s hard for me to find time. I have school, I have friends, I have my blog, and while you might think that all that is related to God… its doesn’t always end up that way.

In Lamentations 3:25 it says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.” In the books of Kings it talks about the kings of Israel, most descriptively, and how they did or didn’t follow God. In all, there were only four wholly godly kings! And on top of that, there were a few kings that were good and bad- but only five more. There was a total of thirty bad kings (these are all the kings listed in 1 Kings 1-2)!

This is proof we need to have time to devote ourselves to God. Here are a few reference verses:

• Proverbs 3:5
• Matthew 6:33a
• 1 Chronicles 28:9b

So let me get you started. Before you get ready in the morning, or before you go to bed at night, read a passage in the Bible and pray. Thank God for all that He’s done for you, and ask Him to help you get in the habit of finding time every day to be with Him. Need help finding what to read? Here’s a website I love that provides good devotionals:

https://katiemajors.blog/

This woman is a missionary from Nashville, Tennessee, serving in Uganda who is a great believer and has also been called to adopt thirteen wonderful girls and have two sons of her own with her husband, Benji. Katie Majors is an excellent role model.