Have you ever faced something that seemed really scary? Has there been a time when you ever felt like everyone in your life was against you? In those times, it can be difficult to know what to do or where to turn.
In today's Bible verse, we see that Jehoshaphat faced a vast army. Facing something like that would feel really scary. Let's read about what happened. Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army from Edom is marching against you from beyond the Dead Sea. They are already at Hazazon-tamar." (This was another name for En-gedi.) 2 Chronicles 20:2 I can only image how scary that must have felt. A huge army was coming against them. They probably felt outnumbered and overwhelmed. And maybe you feel the same way. Perhaps you feel like you're overwhelmed by the things you're facing right now. The good news is that God doesn't leave us helpless or alone in those times. TODAY'S TRUTH: I MIGHT BE SCARED, BUT I'M NOT ALONE! Instead, God is there to guide us in what to do and how to come through difficulty. Today, don't give into feelings of fear. Just like Jehoshaphat, God will help deliver you and give you the wisdom you need to face the scary and big things in your life. Pray: God, I thank you that you're helping me. I thank you for your help in what I'm facing today. I ask you for wisdom today, in Jesus name, Amen.
0 Comments
Give thanks to the LORD and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 1 Chronicles 16:8 When something amazing happens to you, what do you do? If you’re like most people, you tell someone. Regardless of the way you do it, you let people know when something major happens in your life. God built us that way. He built us to share and have relationships with other people. However, many times when it comes to something amazing that God did in our lives, we often keep silent. We might fear that other people will think we’re weird, or just feel unsure of how to share with others. So challenge yourself today to give thanks to God for what He’s done, but also let others know about it. Today’s Bible verse tells us to let the whole world know what He’s done. Share what God has done in your life with someone today. Let God speak through you to encourage others that they can get to know God too. If God has done something amazing in your life, don’t keep it a secret. Step out and share what He’s done for you. You never know who might get encouraged because you weren’t afraid to tell someone! Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2:7 Being thankful right now is probably the last thing on your mind. It feels like there's so many things going on that can make us feel unthankful. However, even in the middle of trouble, we can remind ourselves of our roots. Our roots are in Jesus. And if we've built our lives on him, then we have something to be thankful for. Even if things seem hard right now, you can be thankful that you know Jesus. You have salvation in Him. Forgiveness i found in Him. No matter what you're going through, you have a savior who is there by your side. That is something to be thankful. So even when you feel alone. Even when you feel mistreated, know that you've got roots in Jesus. Jesus is there for you, leading you, keeping you. he's guiding you through whatever you're facing. No matter what, you can be thankful for your roots in Jesus. Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 106:1 Regardless of the difficulty facing you right now, you can give thanks to the Lord. You might think, yeah, but don't understand. I'm going through something really tough. I don't even know if I can make it to tomorrow, let alone give thanks to God.
And it's true, there are some seasons of life that are really tough. However, even in those rough seasons, we can get help, strength and encouragement simply by praising God. This morning, I woke up in such a bad mood and just wanted to scream. Everything that was going on made me so mad. So after breakfast, I began to sing. I sang praise songs at the top of my lungs. And it began to do something for me. The stress I was facing didn't seem as bad. The anger I had didn't seem nearly as important. Simply because I had taken some time to sing and thank God. There is power in practicing praise and thankfulness. So even if you don't feel like it, determine to be thankful and praise God today. It will help strengthen and encourage you to get through the difficulty you're facing. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33 If you flip on the TV, or go online, you see lots of things that can bring fear. It is really easy to see all the horrible things happening in the world and begin to be afraid. No matter how crazy things get in the world around us, God doesn’t want us living our lives in fear. Fear stops us, holds us back and keeps us from doing the things that God intended for us to do. Instead of being afraid, we should put our trust in Jesus. He will keep us safe. He is there to help us navigate through the troubles and the craziness that life brings. JESUS WILL HELP US NAVIGATE THROUGH THE TROUBLES THAT LIFE BRINGS So instead of being afraid of what is going on in the world around us, we should take heart and realize that the God we serve has already conquered everything we're up against. We don't have to fear, we've got a great God on our side! Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:18 It can be really easy to say the "right" things. If someone asked you the question, 'should you lie?', you know what the "right" answer is. However, when you're in a pinch and lying will help you look better, or get out of trouble, what do you do?
Today's Bible verse is talking about this very thing. It's telling us that not only saying something matters, it's also about what you do. If you say you love other people, but aren't friendly to the new student, or help encourage the student being bullied, you're loving people with words, but not with action. Loving someone with action and truth takes guts. It asks you to step beyond what seems comfortable to do what is right. That is what today's Bible verse challenges us to do. WILL YOU STEP BEYOND WHAT IS COMFORTABLE, TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT? The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. – Proverbs 11:24 There's a lie in our society today that tells us that if we get more we will be happier. If we had more friends we would be happier. If we had a better car we'd be happier. If we got those new shoes we'd be happier. We see it all around us. So many people are wearing themselves out pursuing things in an effort to make themselves happier.
God gives us a different perspective here in this verse. Basically, He's saying that we we are primarily focused on ourselves and keeping us happy and getting more things for ourselves that our world will be small. When your focus is on yourself, your world will be small. And the reality is, the more you focus on yourself the unhappier you'll be. God wants to use you. he wants to do big things through you and use you to bless the people around you. FOCUSING ONLY ON YOURSELF WILL LEAD TO UNHAPPINESS However, if your main focus is on yourself, your world will be small. Instead , if you choose to focus on others and meeting the needs of those around you, you'll not only be happier, but you'll be more fulfilled. You'll know that you're being used by God to help those around you in a big way. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. - Ephesians 4:29 Do you sometimes struggle with speaking life-giving words? How about speaking poorly of yourself? Maybe you feel like you'll never understand math and so you say, I'm never got to get this...I'm so dumb! I don't know about you, but I know I've been there! It's so easy to fall into negative speech patterns. We let words fly out of our mouths without giving them any attention. However, when we do that, it can bring some negative effects Instead, we should be speaking life-giving words over ourselves and others. When we speak words of encouragement and life it's when we really see good things happen. Decide today to put a priority on speaking words that build yourself and others up. You'll be encouraged at the good things that follow. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 When I was your age I remember looking at this verse and think why do I need to find God? I already have! Even if you have a great relationship with God, there is always so much more that we can experience and learn about Him. He wants us to experience Him in a deeper way and know about His ways so that we can experience more of His love and goodness in our lives. In order to really find God, this verse is saying that we must seek Him with all of our hearts. We can't casually try to seek God a little here and there and expect to really find Him. We must dive in and seek Him with everything we have in order to really find Him and get to know Him. This type of seeking doesn't happen on a Sunday at church. This doesn't even happen if you only open a Bible once a week. This happens when you lay aside other things and place al your focus on finding Him that you truly get a breakthrough. It's not that God is holding out on us an dis only willing to reveal Himself to us if He sees we are seeking enough. This Bible verse is simply saying that our hearts were never designed to be able to focus on several things at once. We must choose to place our focus on one thing and that one things alone to really get results. Today, decide that you're going to daily take time to seek the Lord. This verse assures us that when we do, we will find Him. You'll never regret taking your time and focusing on the Lord. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. - Hebrews 13:15 The crazy thing about thanking someone is that you've got to express your thankfulness. Just thinking it will never let the person know how thankful you are. You can tell them, text them, write them, message them, or any other medium you can think of. If you don't ever express your thankfulness in some way, that person(s) will never know that you appreciate them and what they did. Today's bible verse talks about thanking God. It tells us to thank him continually. Many times we think that if we thank God once a week at church, we're all set. However, this verse tells us to think Him continually. So when you're eating breakfast, thank Him for your food. When you go to school, thank Him for the opportunity to learn. In all things throughout the day, take moments to give God thanks. When we take time out of our day to thank God, we're helping Him, but we're also helping ourselves. When we carve out the time to think about all the things we have to thank God for, we can't be sad! We can't feel down and depressed when spending time thanking God for all He has done for you. So maybe, just maybe, instead of waiting waiting for some encouragement to come to you today, or you need to hear some good news, choose to be thankful. Make a list of everything God has done for you and you just might find that it's harder to be sad! |
DailyThese will be here every day so make sure you stay up to date on the latest! Remember these will only take a few minutes so you can do them while you're waiting for your turn on the T.V.!
|