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Colossians 3:23-25 (NLV)

23 Whatever work you do, do it with all your heart. Do it for the Lord and not for men. 24 Remember that you will get your reward from the Lord. He will give you what you should receive. You are working for the Lord Christ. 25 If anyone does wrong, he will suffer for it. God does not respect one person more than another.

Matthew 6: 21, 24 (NLV)

 21For wherever your riches are, your heart will be there also. 24 No one can have two bosses. He will hate the one and love the other. Or he will listen to the one and work against the other. You cannot have both God and riches as your boss at the same time.

In small group this week, we read a chapter of a book titled “Identity” by Matt Brown.  He started this chapter off with a question I ask frequently to the students in my class, “What do you want to BE when you grow up?”  NOT,  “What do you want to DO when you grow up?”  See the 1 word that has changed.  We can claim a profession and DO that profession to the best of our ability.  However, does it become what we want to “BE” as a person.  God intended us to do more than go to work and come home.  He created us to go to work, reflect His love on others, and do HIS work.  We get so wrapped up in what needs to be done at work.  In fact, we tend to let our identity get wrapped up in the title of our job.  In turn, we define ourselves by our success.  We can easily begin to have a change of heart and focus on our success and career that we forget the main purpose of our day, to be HIS disciple.  As Matthew 6:21 states, if you see great value in your material things (or job), that is where your heart lies.  If you see great value in a relationship with God and His love, that is where our heart will lie.  

God is our one and only “boss”.  You can’t serve 2 “bosses” and have a full heart.  So take a moment today, when the stress level is at its greatest, and know that God is in control.  He will help guide you and your words, IF YOU LET HIM.  So my prayer for you today is that you focus on the moments you are in and to be who HE designed you TO BE in those moments.   God wants us to leave a legacy that points only to HIM.

Enjoy “Legacy” by Nicole Nordeman

Be Blessed!

Bold Believers

1 Thessalonians 2:2, 8

2 They must not speak bad of anyone, and they must not argue. They should be gentle and kind to all people.

8 What I have told you is true. Teach these things all the time so those who have put their trust in God will be careful to do good things. These things are good and will help all men.

Colossians 4:5-6

5 Be wise in the way you live around those who are not Christians. Make good use of your time. 6 Speak with them in such a way they will want to listen to you. Do not let your talk sound foolish. Know how to give the right answer to anyone.

Being BOLD BELIEVERS can be very difficult, especially if you have been wronged or are in a situation that you feel weak.  We want to do 1 of 2 things:  1. run and hide, or 2. face that issue head on, not reflecting God’s love, but your  Earthly anger.  

I’m currently working through a Beth Moore study titled “Entrusted”.  She broke down the word COWARD for us last week.   This word came from coe "tail," or from Latin coda, popular cauda “tail”.  Think about what it looks like when you see a white cotton tail hop across the road as you are driving.  What does it do?  It runs as fast as it can the other way.  All we see is the white little bob jumping into the nearest bush or brush.  What does the enemy want us to do when we are faced with an obstacle in our lives?  He wants us to RUN and drive us away from what God has created us to be.  

Being a BOLD BELIEVER means to be wise in our actions and reactions, speak with confidence and strength so that they may feel God’s love and want to know more about Him, be meek and humble, but yet strong about God’s will.   Some of the seeds you plant, you may not see grow.  However, you have scattered God’s seed.  He will continue to nurture that seed through other disciples in that person’s life.  Let go of the negative feelings and let God’s love bring you closer to Him.  God doesn’t want us to live a life of regret and worry.  He wants us to truly trust Him and rely completely on Him to carry us through those tough situations.  Be a Bold Believer!

Be Blessed!

Live Loved

1 John 4:7-8, 11-12 (HCSB)

Knowing God through Love

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.

Zephaniah 3:17New Life Version (NLV)

17 The Lord your God is with you, a Powerful One Who wins the battle. He will have much joy over you. With His love He will give you new life. He will have joy over you with loud singing.

“Live Loved.”  I have seen this phrase a few times in life, but really had time to stew over it the last few days.  I’m currently reading Uninvited, by Lysa TerKeurst.  In Chapter 3, which ironically is titled “There is a Woman at the Gym Who Hates Me” (I live in the gym 4 mornings a week.), it really talks about “living loved”. 

There are so many time that we “think” too much into situations.  In fact, I can probably safely that most of what brings us negative feelings comes from our own thoughts of making something more than what it actually is.  I say this A LOT… your worst enemy is yourself/aka your brain.  The biggest battle is in between your 2 ears.  

So what does “living loved” mean?  Dropping the negative thoughts, not letting the mood of others drive your emotions, and letting go of past rejections/hurts.  

God desires for us to live a full life with love.  Love comes from HIM.  Love fills us with what HE wants us to be filled with.  How do we do this?  By making letting HIM make small tweaks in our daily lives.  Again, how do we do this?  Letting Him pour into our daily lives is both easily done, but also takes dedication.  Suggestions:  carve time out daily to sit and be in HIS word, find a good devotional or reading plan to follow (I have suggestions if you don’t know where to start.), listen to a Christian station to and from work (because we all know that negative vibes happen a lot while at work), PRAY, and looking for HIS goodness throughout the day.  

Lysa states, “I’d say, I put God first in my life, but give all my first moments of each day to checking my text messages rather than checking HIS message.”  

Go out today and LIVE LOVED!  

“Live from the abundant place that you are loved, and you won’t find yourself begging others for scraps of love.”

God's Mission

John 15:16New Life Version (NLV)

16 You have not chosen Me, I have chosen you. I have set you apart for the work of bringing in fruit. Your fruit should last. And whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.

3 years ago, I was given a task that seemed easy.  However, I struggled/fought with it for months.  What was my purpose?  We have all been blessed with titles such as wife, husband, mother, father, daughter, son, friend, mentor, teacher, etc.  Those titles come to us and we begin to fit into that “box”.  That title starts to define who we are as a person and what we do in our actions.  So, why was it so hard for me to define my purpose?  I had to really dig deep to excavate this purpose.  I had limited myself to being a wife who takes care of her husband, a mother who comforts her children, and a teacher who, well, teaches.  Something was pulling on my heart to do more with those titles/blessings.  

God gives us all a mission.  He looks at all of us the same (Galations 2:6b), but places us together on this earth to accomplish something different.  Breaking beyond our comfort zone is hard.  Chiseling away at who I had become to make something better for HIM was and still is NOT easy.  However, I have discovered that wherever my journey takes me my purpose is the following:

“I do life with God so that I can do more and be more for my family and others around me.”  

Through the hardest times, His hand was placed on my heart.  He always guides me through those valleys.  You see, 3 years ago, my father was towards the end of his journey here on Earth.  I really reflected on him and all that he had accomplished in his lifetime.  He was more than a husband, a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a pharmacist, a friend…the list could go on.  He was more than those titles.   He was a man of God and walking God’s mission in his life.  

What is your purpose?  What is your mission?  Take time to meditate on those thoughts and truly listen to HIM.   

Be Blessed!