Strong believers might think, "I'm strong. I don't need to trust as much, or read as much, or pray or fellowship as much as I once did. That's for the younger Christians."
But "take heed lest you fall" is a timeless principle. It's in Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."
One practical way to build your faith is by remembrance. When David was just a shepherd boy, he had courage to face a giant partly because he remembered the previous victories the Lord allowed him to experience. He approached King Saul with great confidence, saying: "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine" (1Sam 17:36, NIV).
The Final Analysis People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ...Forgive them anyway! If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; ...Be kind anyway!
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; ...Succeed anyway!
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; ...Be honest and frank anyway!
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; ...Build anyway!
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; ...Be happy anyway!
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; ...Do good anyway!
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; ...Give the world the best you've got anyway!
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
The brokenness of Jesus brought about eternal life! Any amount of being broken cannot compare to His awesome sacrifice for our sins. So learn from the trials that come your way. God is doing amazing things in your life.
Teach others about God's love; And if you must, use words.
Despite what our culture thinks, life is not about us. It’s about having a relationship with the Lord. Whoever accepts Christ’s gift of salvation will live eternally with Him in heaven. Those who reject God will suffer His wrath and spend eternity in hell.
•Read the Bible consistently.
•Turn to God constantly.
•Focus on God continually.
•Seek out faith-builders persistently
We need to look for people who will encourage us to be faithful instead of constantly looking for ways to undermine our faith.
Did you hear about the farmer that had a brilliant dog? He also had a neighbor that was negative - no matter what. If it was raining, the farmer would say to his neighbor, "Boy, look at it rain. God's washing everything clean." The neighbor said, "Yeah, but if this rain keeps up, it's going to flood." Then the sun would come out and the neighbor would say, “If it keeps that up, it's going to burn the crops." The farmer thought, "What am I going to do with this guy?" He made a plan. The farmer trained his dog to walk on water. He didn't tell his neighbor - just took him duck hunting. Boom! Boom! They got two ducks. The farmer said to his dog, "Go get 'em." The dog sprinted across the water, picked up the ducks and hopped back in the boat, nothing wet, just his paws. With a confident smile, the farmer asked his doubting neighbor, "What do you think of that?" The neighbor quickly replied, "He can't swim, can he?" Do you know people like the neighbor? Run from the doubters in your life.
“There is a good dog and a bad dog fighting within each of us. The one that is going to win is the one we feed the most.”
If we would have God open His treasury,
we must open ours.
~Thomas Moore~
Don't miss the boat because something does not make sens to you in the moment
Robert Hollis said, Our wants and dreams used to be with ('s) at the end..I want cars, houses, vacations etc... everything was in plurals...THIS was an eye opener.. so true that now we say, I need a car, etc.. things have become singular.. WHY?? WHO changed our dreams? WE DID!!
"When you do things for others; don’t expect your good deeds to be returned. Do it because you enjoy making someone’s day and making them smile. Do things from love... it is the meaning of life."
Some things in your life have to give, so that God can give you something better.
Today remember that God has called us to have faith in Him -- because His nature is faithful. Let the Holy Spirit give you the faith you need to face you circumstances with joy!
A pledge to take a woman for his wife commits a man to
sharing life in its entirety.
~Walter J. Chantry~
When God gets in the middle of life—evil becomes good!
If you try to please everyone, you'll fail.
Two of life’s greatest tragedies are never to have had a great mission in life, and to have fully reached it so there is no challenge remaining.
If we succeed without sacrifice, it’s because someone sacrificed for us.
Real power comes by empowering others!
Superstitious rituals can have downsides—free yourself from irrational beliefs and learn the limits of your power.
A small gesture can mean a lot to someone.
“Your attitude is an expression of your values, beliefs and expectation.”
— Brian Tracy
Before you act...listen. Before you quit...try.
Make your smile change the world but don't let the world change your smile.
You can’t undo all the damage you’ve done. But you can arise and go to your Father. Even the apostle Paul had to make this choice.
We have to trust the Lord with our lives, fully and completely. If we turn our lives over to Him, completely, He will do amazing things. If we do not fully trust Him, we will miss out on the true blessings God has for each one of us, individually. There is no other will but the Master’s will, for all other wills subserve His, whether they will or no.
~William Still~
“I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power.”
― Francis Chan
If you have made Christ the Lord of your life, you can be fully confident in your destiny when the day of judgment arrives. You truly have nothing to fear, for the Heaven awaiting you will far surpass any meager joys Earth can offer.
Without the heart, it is no worship. It is a stage play. It is an action of a part without being that person, really. It is playing the hypocrite.
~Stephen Charnock~
In today’s world, belief in the oneness and trinity of God is often assailed. Atheists accuse Christians of fundamental irrationality. Muslims see Trinitarian belief as denying the oneness of God. Christians are sometimes tempted to simplify matters by rejecting the Trinitarian character of God. Yet, even though the three-in-one nature of God is complex, and even though it is something we can never fully comprehend, we Christians remain steadfast in affirming that God is truly one, even as God is also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the one God whom we confess, serve, and love.
Don’t get caught up in conspiracy theories or, more likely, vain arguments or even political debates that will only cause you to lose focus on your real message – “[God] loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
How can a person motivated by selfish ambition and insincerity preach Christ? That’s a really good question; Paul tells us regardless of any negative motivation, God is glorified and people are blessed when the Gospel message is preached. But what about the person preaching? Hopefully, they too will be moved, touched and changed by the words they speak. Never the less the word does not retune void, Amen.
I am one of those who does not think that the beauty of holiness consists in beauty but rather in holiness, in that holiness which is God and which comes from God and in which alone there is the strength to live and work and pray. ~John R. De Witt~
“He who can tell men what God has done for his soul is the likeliest to bring their souls to God.” —Robert Leighton
Take a moment right now and slow down. What decision are you rushing? Patience is a virtue which our society has turned into something negative.
We are the Bibles the world is reading; we are the creeds the world is needing; we are the sermons the world is heeding.
~Billy Graham~
It is a fact in human history that men and women have never in any great numbers sought after truth. The young people who stream from our halls of learning each year confess to having no more than a passing and academic interest in truth. The majority admit that they go to college only to improve their social standing and increase their earning power. So, the average American will confess that he most wants success in his chosen field; and he wants success both for prestige and for financial security. The ominous thing about all this is that everything men and women want can be bought with money, and it would be difficult to think of an indictment more terrible than that! Real seekers after truth are almost as rare as albino deer! Why? Because truth is a glorious but hard master. Jesus said, "I am the Truth," and followed Truth straight to the Cross. The Truth seeker must follow Him there and that is the reason few men seek the Truth!
A. W. Tozer Sermon: Money Is Not Truth
A true and faithful Christian does not make holy living an accidental thing. It is his great concern. As the business of the soldier is to fight, so the business of the Christian is to be like Christ.
~Jonathan Edwards~
"Don't tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is."
"Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of Christ."— Sheila Walsh
"Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night."— George Herbert
"God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself."— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The nature of God's love is unchangeable. Ours may be intense at times and weak at others. But His love is deep, constant, and eternal."— A.W. Tozer
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."— Helen Keller
"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible."— Thomas Aquinas
Many people waste their lives by aiming to please themselves. Their lives are choked with self-indulgence.
pleasing self cannot lead to spiritual growth and Christlikeness.
Asking for help from the Almighty is like opening the doors, letting God in, opening your heart, surrendering your will to His, and letting the Spirit act on your behalf.
I encourage you to take the time to really listen to someone today. Give that wonderful gift Jesus so lovingly gives to us.
Gratitude is to worry what antibiotics are to an infection.
In God’s economy, the way up is down, and the way down is up.
God was not unaware of the needs of the Israelites. And God is not unaware of your deepest needs.
Do you find yourself questioning God in a place you find yourself in? That wilderness isn’t Him punishing you. He is not unaware of your secret need. He’s with you and for you. How can you be obedient to Him right where you are?
The difficulty of our circumstances is not a mistake.
Let’s not get stuck in comparison, but remember that God has designed our lives particularly for a reason. He sees what we can’t see and His plan is bigger than we can imagine.
Every single one of us deserves ugly ramifications for our wrongdoings… which is why we need the prayers of those around us and the forgiving mercy and grace of God.
If you’ve eaten at In-N-Out, you’ve likely seen the Bible verses on cups and burger wrappers. How are you sharing your faith in Jesus? None of us is perfect or behaves perfectly, but let people know that you’re a Christian!
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