Philippians 4:4-9
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: REJOICE!…"
God’s mercy is new every morning. Refresh your soul by reading these verses, every morning if you desire! How do you rejoice in the Lord? Especially when things are going down the drain, life is not a lovely, flowery walk in the park? We turn to Him. For peace, for comfort, strength, courage, wisdom, support, love…His Word says at the end of this section of Scripture, "And the God of peace will be with you." Paul wasn’t wasting his time just saying that to make people feel all fuzzy inside. God is speaking to us, through Paul, and saying that He will be with us, and give us peace, if we will turn to Him, talk to Him, spend time in a relationship with Him.
"Let your gentleness be evident to all."
Gentleness. We could all experience some of that every once and a while. The Lord is calling us to show each other gentleness. Why? Because as Christians, we are not only supposed to love, it’s the greatest commandment from our Lord, but the desire of our hearts should be to love and show God's love. Everything thing we do or say should reflect God’s love. So people will see that the Lord is good. In Galatians 5:22,23, the apostle Paul writes: "But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (New Living Translation). This kind of fruit will be so obvious in our lives when we let the Holy Spirit live through us. The Holy Spirit is a gift from our Lord to US! And He will be with us until we see Jesus face to face!
"The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
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4 comments:
You know I do get caught up in the everyday life of cleaning, mothering,and being a wife that I forget to come to God for things.I know what I should be doing but it's so hard to actually do it. I continue striving to be fully engrossed in the word and to be comfortabe sharing it.I look at some people and see how easy it is to get in front of other people and share the word. It makes me think that I don't know all I need to know about the bible but for me it's so hard to get motivated to do it. Does anyone have any suggetions on how I can reevaluate my time to be able to get deeply into reading and finding out what God has instore for my life?I want to be that person that is dedicated to God and I want it to show in the way I live.
Gentleness and love. My biggest problem is not to be willing to show God's love, but to be willing to accept His love from His people. I tend to have a slightly cynical outlook from time to time, and have to remind myself that He is so much bigger than the fears I have. Trusting that people are really there to care and not to take advantage. So I struggle a little with allowing others to minister and show the love of Christ to me.
I'm a work in progress.
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I think that most people would answer and say something along the lines of "you have to decide what is important to you and then make time for it." But the reality is that we know it's important, if we didn't understand that we wouldn't feel the struggle to make the time for study.
One thing that has helped me buckle down and spend real time in Bible study is finding a devotional or study guide that was really interesting to me. If we're honest we'll admit that just opening the Bible at random and looking for "God's will" for our lives can be more than a little intimidating. A good study guide is meant to take away that trepidation.
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In my Evangelism class at college we read a book by Bill Bright called Witnessing Without Fear. I still have the book and use it when I come up against a situation where I know I could share my faith but have fears about how to approach the person.
I highly recommend the book. It covers everything you need to give you confidence in witnessing. How to pray for those you want to witness to, how to guide conversations towards Christ, even how to disciple new converts. It's an easy read and very informative.
Go to this website:
http://www.thelife.com/study_bible/
It has online Bible studies where you can take notes and everything. I have been looking for so long for something that is online and in depth...and doesn't cost me a membership fee! I have done one and really liked it.
Don't forget, though, that even though it seems like all you do is clean toilets and wipe faces, you're showing not only your love, but God's love to your family. Which is very important.
One thing that is good to do is to remember one Scripture verse everyday throughout the day. Hide His Word in your heart! That's how you do it. And what's in your heart is on your mind, what's on your mind, comes out through your mouth and your actions!
Thanks for the advice and for your resources.
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