The race •

    Do you ever feel like you are being weighed down, or held back? Maybe you feel like your sin is weighing you down to where you feel like you can’t even walk. Or maybe it’s a burden that has been laid on you that is to heavy to bear. Well one question that I want you to ask yourself is, is this affecting how you’re running your race? Is it slowing you down or holding you back from truly seeking God wholeheartedly.
    Sometimes in life we have to tell our burdens to other people have an accountability partner who’s there to listen when we just need to get something off of our chest. Whether it be a best friend or even a parent someone you can talk to who can help you carry that burden so you’re not alone. Someone who will help you get through your hard times the right way. Someone who can Help take some of the burden so it’s not so hard on you.The Bible tells us that we were supposed to take one another’s burdens.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:2‬ ‭

    Not only can we talk to others who we trust but there’s someone who will always be there to take our burdens away from us. That’s God. He tells us in the Bible that we can cast all of our worries, our cares, our burdens, and all of our anxieties on him because he cares for us. He died for us so that we wouldn’t have to carry all that he wants us to give our burdens to him so we don’t have to carry them. God died for us because he cares for us he chose us so let’s choose to put all of our worries in our burdens behind us and give them to God.

“casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.”1 Peter‬ ‭5:7‬ 

    So I’m gonna go back to the first question that I asked you how are you running your race. Are you walking, are you jogging, are you running your race with endurance full speed on fire for God. My challenge for everyone today is if you have sin in your life that is holding you back or holding you down give it to God. Go to God and lay your sin down before him. Give God your everything. Because he gave everything for you. Run your race with endurance seek God with all you have.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭

Valleys •

    Have you ever been in a valley before or maybe you are in one now. Well my best friend told me that all Christians go through valleys. Here recently I myself was in  a valley but I began to climb.

    I won't lie to you and tell you that there was not a moment when I thought that nothing good was going to come out of the situation that I was in. Or that I didn't question Why God was making me go through this. But then I realized that God does not give us anything that we can't handle.

    The bible tells us that God has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. From this we can take away that no matter what we go through God has plans to make it work for good.

     "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

    When you are in a valley you don't have to fear because you are not alone. No matter how deep or dark the valley may feel or seem you have to remember that God is right there with you through every step.

"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." Psalm 23:4 

     God will give us the strength to get through every obstetrical that he places in our lives. he is not going to leave us alone and let us struggle. He is our heavenly father he will be our shelter and our home when we have none. He will be the strength that we need when we are at our weakest.

"So do not fear, for I am with you;

    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

    No matter how deep your valley may be one thing we can always cling to is knowing that Gods love for you is deeper. And sometimes we have to walk by faith. Trusting God that he will take care of us, and that he will be our light when we are in the dark.
 
   So today I challenge you if you are in a valley to start climbing. That you would start to seek God with every thing that you got. And My prayer for you is that you would have faith like you have never had before. That in the middle of the storm you would lift your hands to God and praise him. And that one day as you are standing at the top of the mountain praising God, that you would remember how you praised him in the valley.

Find the good •

    During this time of panic and negativity we have to choose to find the good. We have to learn to see each and every situation that happens in a different way. Try looking at it like what good can come out of this situation. Think about it...

   Sometimes in life we jump to the worst scenario. I know that I do. For example when a family member gets sick we hope that they will be OK, but at the same time in our minds we think they won't get better they will only get worse. Wheres the faith? Where is the trust that we have in Christ? We have to learn to find the good in all situations.We need to learn to trust God and have faith in him through the good and the bad times. We have to realize that just because things do not go according to our plans dose not mean that they are not going according to Gods plan. Sometime in life we won't understand why things happen, but one day it will be made clear and we will understand.

    Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” John 13:7 

    There are many things that we can find the good in. Maybe our past, story, or hard times that went through. I know that all of us at one point in our lives have asked God why we had to go through a certain time or situation. Why did it happen? Why me? Why then? One thing that we know is that God works everything for the good of those who love him. We do not go through everything for no reason, God has a greater purpose that we may not see. We have to see that Gods plan has a greater purpose. God can do more and greater things with our lives that we could ever imagine. God has known the plan for each and everyone of our lives from the very beginning and everything that we have went through was for a purpose and to give us a hope for a future that God has planed for us. Have you ever thought that God may have put you through the trials so that you can also reach others that have been through similar experiences to tell them that God is good and that he is a God that saves that they are not alone. This is just a another way of finding the good in our lives trials.

     "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think" Ephesians 3:20 

    "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11

"When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you" Isaiah 43:2

    Next time that you think that you can't find the good in the situation I want you to think about everything that God has got you through. How you have had someone all along who loved you and walked every trial with you and felt all the pain that you felt. A God who saw your future when you could barley see your tomorrow. God Finds the good in you and in me and every situation. God is the Good.

The potter •

The potter, what dose that mean to you. Is it just a word , or maybe even a phrase. Well to me that has a lot of meaning. It reminds me of God because God is my potter.

Recently I have listened  to a song and it has opened my eyes. It made me realize how we can really look past the simple things in life, and sometimes the simple things can have a big meaning. 

Some may ask how is God a potter? Well think of it like this... God is a creator he is the creator of everything. He made each and everyone of us from dirt.

 “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:7‬. 

So if God is the potter then we are his clay. God took us from dirt nasty and ugly and made us into a beautiful masterpiece. Wow.  We have a a God who saw us when we were dirty and living in sin and said you are beautiful and picked us up and put us on his wheel. He made us to be a masterpiece, if that does not make you feel loved or wanted then what does.

Each piece of art work that an artist creates is not the same and the same goes for God. We were all made to be different, but we all have the same purpose which is to serve God and truly be devoted to God. 

As a potter God came to us when were broken and ugly. He saw us in our weakest and in our toughest he saw beautiful when all we saw was broken. 

“But now, O Jehovah, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭64:8‬

  

When we don’t have Christ we are dust that is just useless, but when we put our faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection, the living water of Jesus Christ turns ordinary dust into usable clay. God has made us who we are for a purpose far greater than we can ever imagine.

Struggles•

    As people living in the world, we tend to face hard times and struggles. What we do in these times is what really matters. Do we let them win or do we persevere. There are two types of people, the people who let the positive and reach for the light and hold on to the good. Then there are the type that lay down and give up. They think there is no hope and things could never get any worse. They find the darkness and stay there, and they cling to the negative.

     What type are you?

   There are many things that we can hold on to when we go through struggles. There is only one that really matters and that is God. We can read from the Bible, and listen to songs as well about how God is going to be there through everything through the good and the bad.

    One of my all time favorite songs is "Through all of it ", by Colton Dixon. If you have never heard it before I suggest that you go and listen to it. When I hear this song it reminds me that God's got my back. That no matter what I do or what happens in life, Gods going to be there, because God is constant and will never leave. He will ALWAYS be there through the struggles.

   The Bible tells us in Psalm 46:1, That God is a safe place when we are in times of trouble. God is our shelter through the storm and he will give us the strength to persevere and get through it.

" God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. "(psalm 46:1)

   The Bible also tells us in Isaiah 12:2 that we should not be afraid because God is our strength and our defense.

"Surely God is my salvation  I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense he has become my salvation.” ( Isaiah 12:2)

 Jeremiah 17:7 tells us that we have to trust God and have confidence in him.

 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." (Jeremiah 17:7)

    Some of you may ask why does this have anything to do with struggles. Well think about it. When we go through struggles do we have confidence in God knowing he will do what is needed to be done or what is best? Do we have confidence that he will give us strength and help us, and comfort us is our struggles? Or do we trust God, trust him that he knows what he is doing and trust that God will not fail us.

Another verse that is good for us to look back on in our times of struggle is Jeremiah 29:11.

" For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"." (Jeremiah 29:11)

   This verse tell us that God does not want to harm us, and that every trial that he puts us through is for a reason. God wants to make us better not break us. He loves us with a love far greater than anything that we could find in this world. God wants to give us hope not discourage us.

   The last verse that I will leave you with will be psalm 23:4.

"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." (Psalm 23:4) 

  We go through dark and trying times but we are never alone we have God through everything. Because God is with us we should not fear. We should take comfort in knowing that God is going to be there to catch each tear that is shed, and he will hear each cry that is cried. God is not only going to be there to love and comfort us in the good times, but he will be there through the dark times as well.

   One more truly amazing song to listen to if you are going through a hard time is " Near to me ", by I Am They. This song speaks so much truth. It talks about in our darkest times God can make them light as dawn. It tells us that when we loose everything we have God and he will be there for us. We will never be alone and we will never have nothing, because we will always have God.

   So what type of person are you? Are you going to lift your head and worship God and find your hope in God, in your times of trouble? Or are you going to stay down and cling to the negative and push God away.

          Thank you for reading!

Patience

    Patience... do we have enough. Are we patient with everyone or just the people we love. We have to be patient with everyone and everything.
    Sometimes we are impatient at the wrong times. Like when we are impatient with God or someone and their salvation. But we have to realize that this is God’s time and not ours.
    The Bible tells us that those who become impatient will become angry and foolish. Why because anger can make us do foolish things. And to be patient is of the lord.

Ecclesiastes  7:9 

“Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.”

    The word of God also tells us that we are to be humble and patient with one another for this will show love to one another.

Ephesians 4:2 

“with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love”

    We need to patient with God, but often we are not. The Bible says that we are to stand before God and be in patience. We are supposed to be patient when people go in wicked ways and reframe from evil and those who have hope in God will inharret his land.

Psalm 37:7-9

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

    The last thing that I am going to  mention is that love is kind and patient and if we are to show love we are to be to be kind and patient, not to be jealous or boastful.

1 Corinthians 13:4 

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant”

The Devils Lies

    To start off I would like to say sorry for the delay for the past few weeks, I have been trying to think of what to say. This past weekend I attended Hearts on Fire which was an amazing experience, one of the speakers talked about lies and the most common lies so that inspired to me to write this today. Today I will help you put the devils lies to rest.

 
     Lies. Do we believe them? Yes we do, we believe the lies that originated from the devil. We believe when we accept them. We believe the lie when the devil tells us that we are worthless, and we will never amount to anything. He tells us that we are ugly and no one wants us and that we will always be alone, but that’s always a lie because God is always with us.

    The bible says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

    The most common lie that I hear from teenager and adults today is that they are ugly. We need to stop and think  every time that we put our selves down and only point out our in perfections we are putting Gods creation and his works down telling him that he messed up. I struggled with this lie more times than I can count but someone told me to read the scripture from psalm 139, and that I needed to write it down on a sticky note and put it on a mirror so that every morning that I look at it and it will remind me that I am made in Gods image.

     The bible says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully ad wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:13-14

     Another lie is that we will never amount to anything, or that you will never be successful we will always loose. As long as we have God on our side we will never loose because in Gods eyes we will always be winners. In y opinion we will always win as long as we have Gods love and compassion and to know that we are saved and set free makes me feel like a winner.

   The bible says, "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57 

    These lies are just some of the few, but I do believe these are some of the most common or at least the most common ones that we have heard. The point of this post is to let you all know that no matter what lie the devil tells you, you have the power of God over you to help you put the lie to ease. Am I saying that it is easy no but it is easier with Gods love, compassion, help ,peace and power, because no matter what the devil will l never over power the Lord. This week I challenge you to share this message, and look in the mirror and make a change. This message could change someone's life, God could change someone's life through this message.
 
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