John 8:12 Says that Jesus is the light of the world. If we have Jesus in our hearts, then are we too light of the world? I think we should be. We should shine with the light of Jesus, by honoring Him with our actions and words- with our lives. We way we live our lives can show so, so much about us. Our faith should be a big part of our daily lives, a part so big that others can point and say, “Hey, that person shines with the light of Jesus!” If we live like everybody else, then we are a like a burnt out light-bulb in a room full of burnt out light bulbs; we don’t do any good. If we live like we have Jesus in our hearts, then we are a functional light-bulb in a room full of broken ones. We shed light on the broken, just like, if we live the way Jesus wants us to, we can shed light on the broken-hearted’s lives.
Ask yourself this question, and answer honestly, are you a functional, dim, or broken light-bulb?
God, the Bible, Jesus, Church
V.S.
Our Daily Lives and the world around us.
Do they mix? Can we take the Bible, God and Jesus into our daily lives? Yes, yes we can. Though sometimes our minds stray from what the Word says, and God, and into the world around us, God still is with us. Really pray to Him about keeping Him on your mind all the time. The truth is that a lot of people think that the Spiritual part of their lives and the things on earth part of their lives don’t mix, but they do, God wants to be part of our lives all the time. You can’t just switch it on and off. The thing is that you make the decision:
Honestly, I’m pretty sure God prefers the first. God loves you, and loves to spend time with you, but you have to make an effort to spend time with Him or it just isn’t going to happen.
Dear LORD,
Thank you for all the time we have spent together. Please help me to make it a goal to spend more time with You in the future.
Amen.
I turn 14 today. I have had over 5110 days to live on this planet, 1,22,640 hours. I got to wondering how many of those hours I had really devoted to God. It would probably not be a very big number. It would be a number that I would be ashamed to compare to the number above. God is amazing, and though He has created amazing things to do on this planet, and though He knows we cannot devote all our time to Him, the amount of time that we actually give Him is not anywhere near where it should be. Psalm 96:9 tells us to worship Him, that means give Him some time. Psalm 105:1-3, Psalm 103:1, Proverbs 1:7, Psalm 9:1-2, Psalm 7:1, Psalm 81:1, and many, many, more verses tell us to praise God, and thank God- guess what? These all take time.
Time is precious, yes. So spend it on something that matters. All the time you spend playing video games could spent spent on something more valuable. It doesn’t even have to be a Bible study! God blessed us with family to spend time with, a beautiful planet to study and explore, and so, so much more. Time is something that is passing, so, so fast. Every second is a blessing, God is the one who blessed us with time, so why don’t we give a little back to Him?
Dear God,
You have blessed me with so much time, and a lot of it i spend doing things that don’t matter. You are amazing. You really are. And I’m sorry I haven’t spent much time with You lately. Please help me to spend more time with You.
Amen
James 2:14-16
God has done some amazing things for us, and now we should do amazing things for Him. So many people say they have faith but don’t do anything to show for it. Don’t be that person. God calls each of us to do different things, sometimes that means to be quiet and do things for God without being noticed yourself, drawing attention to God without drawing attention to yourself. And sometimes it means to shout out loud for our heavenly father. It is different for every person. Like, for me, I am not good at talking to people, unless I really know what I’m talking about, but I am better at putting my thoughts into writing. So, I write. I write in a way that can bring people closer to God, or simply bring glory to His name.
Dear LORD,
Thank you for the talents You have blessed me with, please help me to use them for Your name, and Your glory.
Amen
James 1:19-22
“Be doers of the word.”
God’s word is a book inspired by our Heavenly Father. It is a book for teaching, learning, it has instruction on how to live your life. It deserves respect, and more importantly attention. Daily attention. You cannot know what a book is about unless you actually read it, like, a lot. You could read the Bible 99 times and still be struck by something the 100th time you read it. No matter how many times you read it you can still learn from it. I’m not saying you have to read the whole thing, although that is a good goal, it’s more important to study it, to understand it. This is not an easy task, but is does get easier if you study it and read it daily, in a quiet time with God.
I did not read my Bible daily for a long, long time. Every time I tried to do it it just became frustrating and boring.
Then I started studying it. Not necessarily in order, but whatever I felt that I needed to focus on. I am a teenager with acne issues, so I would become frustrated about that, so I did inner beauty v.s. outer beauty studies and, now, it doesn’t bother me any more.
I was having trouble being joyful when times were hard, then I did a Bible study on that, and prayed, and now I’m better at it.
The point is, reading your Bible daily will help you a lot, not only that day, but in the long run as well.
To do something for God doesn’t mean to make a sacrifice (Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice), or to donate all your money to the Church, what He wants is different for every person, but the main thing, I think, is that we spend time with Him. And really try to understand what we can do to spread His word. It doesn’t have to be mission work in foreign countries, a lot of the times the best mission work we can do is in our own town, maybe even our own home. Our purpose in life is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and to try very hard to spend time with God. Trying to be like God is not what we should strive for, if we spend lots of time with Him, we will become more like Him. Just like the more time you spend with a friend the more you become like a friend. So even though God’s calling is different for everybody, the main thing to strive for is to spend time with God. When you spend time with God, you become more and more like Jesus. The more you are like Jesus, the more you will be doing for God, despite the circumstances you are in.
“Our actions speak louder than our words.”
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? The answer is fairly simple, but it will change your life. The word “disciple” is about a student or apprentice. Disciples back when Jesus day would follow their rabbi, or teacher, wherever he went, learning from his rabbi’s teaching, and being trained to do as his rabbi did. Basically, a disciple is a follower, but only if we take the word follower very literally. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is as simple as obeying His call to follow.
When Jesus called His first disciples they probably didn’t know where Jesus would take them, or the amazing impact it would have on their lives, but they knew that they were called to follow. They took Jesus’ call literally and began following everywhere He went and doing everything He did.
It’s impossible to be a follower of someone and not end up like that person. Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained he will be like his teacher. ” (Luke 6:40). That’s the whole point of being a disciple of Jesus: we imitate Him, and we carry on His ministry in the process.
Yet somehow many have come to believe that you can be a “Christian” without being like Christ. A follower who doesn’t follow. How does that work? Answer, it doesn’t. Many people have chosen to take on the name of Christ and do nothing else.
(This idea was taken from Francis Chan’s “Multiply” Unfortunately I have not reached the level of faith to write something like that yet. )
Psalm 9:1
God has made so many wonderful things. Many, many wonderful things. It is so important that we praise Him! Mainly because He deserves it! There are many ways to praise Him, and many things to praise Him about. One way to praise is to pray. Just pray to tell God what a wonderful job He did.
Let’s say somebody cleaned the kitchen, you tell them what a good job they did. THAT is praising them for doing a good job! When you tell somebody they did a good job, you are sorting of thanking them for doing a good job, therefore; praise is thanks.
Now it is just as important to thank God for what He has done as it is to praise Him. So, praying and thanking and praising are something you should focus on.
One of the Hardest things to change about ourselves is the way we think. How easy is it, really, to change the way we style our hair, or the way we talk, or the way we write? It’s pretty easy, but changing the way we think? It’s not easy at all. It really takes some work, or a sudden realization. So trying writing this 10 times everyday, and meaning it: God loves me no matter how I look. My heart is what really needs work.
God loves YOU, no matter how you look, or what you wear, or how you style your hair. He loves YOU, and wants to help YOU clean up YOUR heart. So, even though you don’t want Him to see your dirty heart until you clean up your heart, He is the only one who can get your heart clean.
Dear LORD,
Thank you for all you have blessed me with. Thank you for blessing me with relationship with You. Thank you for the help you’ve given me in cleaning up my heart.
Amen
1 Samuel 16:7
Another problem with us (humans) and beauty: we pay way too much attention to our personal outer beauty. How much time do you spend in the mirror everyday? How many times have you worried about the way you looked? God doesn’t really care about weather or not our mascara is running, He doesn’t care if our hair is messed up, He doesn’t care what brand of clothes we are wearing. What He does care about is where our hearts are set, what kind of attitude we are having, and how we’re planning to spend our day. Try this: Write 1 Samuel 16:7 on a note-card, and tape it to your bathroom mirror. Whenever you have spent a long time messing with yourself or admiring yourself in the mirror, stop, read the verse, think about it, and walk away asking God to help you be less concerned with what is visible, and more concerned about your heart.
The thing is, is God knows what’s in our heart, He knows when we are really sorry, so false apologies won’t do any good. Try really hard NOT to falsely anything to God. ‘Cause He knows weather you mean it or not.
Dear LORD,
Please help me to focus on what is really important. Please help us to clean up our hearts, not our face, or our hair, or whatever else.
Amen
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