You Get What You Give

 

    A principle of God's is that you get what you give.  Jesus basically said that you sow what you reap.  If you are generous, kind, and loving, then you typically get that in response.  If you are angry, bitter, or have a bad attitude, then you typically get negative attitude back.  If you live a life of faith, then you will see God working in your life.

    God wants a personal and intimate relationship with you, but you have to want it too.  What you put into your relationship with God will be reflected in the kind of relationship you have with God.  If you feed humility, then you will remember all the blessings that God has given you.  If you feed pride, then you get spiritual amnesia.  Pride wears down faith.  This is why arrogance will make you fall and probably humiliate you.

    If you allow God to work in your weakness, then you are more apt to stay humble and be a working agent for God.  When you are humble, you notice when opportunity is knocking and obey God's commands.  You see yourself in a healthy perspective.  You are not prideful, but you don't beat yourself down either.  You know who you are, where you stand with Jesus, and you work toward your purpose with confidence (not arrogance or pride).

    When you rely on God you find strength.  You see victory in life.  You have purpose that people cannot take away.  It is only when you stop relying on God that you begin to fail, stumble, and fall to pride.  Hidden pride destroys relationships and makes life more difficult.  Thank God for your weaknesses in life that cultivate you into a stronger warrior for Him.  Pray over your hard relationships, times, and difficulties in life to see if they are rooted in pride or a weakness to be used by God.

Judges 7:1-3, 8:13-22, Psalm 103:1-5, Proverbs 11:25, 19:17, 30:7-9, Luke 6:37-39, 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, & Galatians 6:7-10

Key to Strength

 

    God is the key to true strength.  You may not be physically strong, but if you are spiritually strong and follow Jesus faithfully, then you can do anything.  God helps you through the impossible.  He gives you courage to face fear, persecution, and pain.  He gives you the Holy Spirit which is your inner power to see past all the obstacles and distractions to what could be and what needs to be done.  God makes you stronger than you know.

    Strength takes daily exercise.  It does not matter if it is physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.  If you want to be physically strong, then you have to lift weights, do mobility exercises, stretching, drink water, and eat healthy.  You have to prioritize your health.  Mental and emotional strength requires controlling your thoughts and taking steps daily for self-control.  Spiritual strength comes by spending time with God in His Word, prayer, and walking in faith.  Take what you learn everyday and apply it to your day.

    Life can be scary.  You may feel fear, overwhelmed, intimidated, exhausted, inadequate, and weak.  You need to acknowledge the feelings to figure out how to move past or work through them.  Ignoring a problem does not make you strong.  It makes you weaker.  Feelings that control you paralyze your progression in the life you are trying to build with God.  God commanded you to be strong and courageous in your obedience to Him.   Do not allow feelings to discourage you from your calling.

    Embrace your weaknesses.  It is in your weakness that God can shine in your life.  He can use them so much better than your strengths.  They allow you to be open to Him and the key to His strength.  You need God to be strong.  When you obtain God's strength you gain confidence in what you are doing.  You may never get stronger in that area, but the strength that God provides overshadows your weakness.  You are not a victim. It is an opportunity to be more, not less.  It is a part of your testimony.

    You may be the underdog.  You may be the runt.  That is okay.  It is always an amazing story when the underdog becomes victorious over the obviously stronger opponent.  The runt has to fight to survive, so it normally becomes stronger than those around.  Moses, and Pharoah, Gideon with the Medianites, David with Goliath, Esther and Human, and the list goes on.  The element that they possess that their opponent does not is that they trusted God.  

    In life it may look like there is no way, but God will make a way if it is a part of His plan.  His way will be obvious and grand after the fact, but if you don't trust Him then you could get destroyed.  Practice focusing on God with the little distractions and when the big things come it will be easier to focus on Him instead of the problem.  You have to practice faith to have strong faith.  Focus on God instead of searching for the key.  God will unlock and open the door for you.  You just have to be watching and ready to move.  The joy in trusting the Lord is your strength.

Joshua 1:6-9, Judges 7:7-13, 8:10-12, Nehemiah 8:10, Psalm 46:1-3, 73:21-26, Isaiah 40:26-31, 41:8-10, Luke 9:12-17, 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, & Philippians 4:10-14

Assignment

 

    Your purpose in life is to discover your assignment for this season and this time in your life.  Some callings never change, but how you serve and obey does.  Each season in life has a purpose.  It is unique for you to be able to do good works.  Some assignments are to prepare you for a bigger purpose and work on building your faith.  Faith is built on trusting God in all circumstances.

    To understand or even find your assignment you need to go to God in prayer and study your Bible.  It is in your time with God that you are able to best prioritize your time.  Once you have prioritized your life, then you are able to start working each step of your assignment from God to fulfill your purpose in life.  

    Working through your assignment will help you face doubt, fear, anger, confusion, and false gods to be able to see more clearly who God is and His purpose for you.  God prepares you at a pace that symbolizes the importance and what you can comprehend.  Sometimes it will be a big push.  Other times it will be a slow growing process.  Neither are very comfortable, but you know God is working in you and it makes it worth while.

    Gideon lived in fear when an angel came to him declaring him a warrior for God.  He could hardly handle it, but he was faithful.  His father was over the pagan religion in his village.  His first assignment from God was to destroy all the idols.  He was faithful, but he did it in the dead of night because he was afraid.  His confidence didn't come until later after watching God provide over and over again for every assignment.

    As a Christian, your first assignment is to be baptized.  It is a small act of obedience.  If you can't be obedient there, then God will not give you more important assignments.  After you do fulfill the first assignment the others will depend on your relationship with God, your willingness to be obedient, spiritual gifts, personality, and your weaknesses that He can use to become strengths for Him.  

    The more you trust God and obey His instructions the more focused your assignments will become.  Your assignments start with you and move out layer by layer of people in your immediate circle to the world.  Facing your family and loved ones may be harder than facing strangers, but you have to start with the people you know and love.  Your assignments will always be different formats of putting God first, replacing sin with His presence, and calling sin sin.

    Living out your faith will say more than the word you use to try to convince them that Jesus is the way to salvation and true joy in life.  Trust God to take care of you as you go into the world boldly for Him.  He will never abandon you.   Find people in your life that will encourage you to to accept your assignments and calling in life.  Those are the people that truly love you and will be there for you.

Genesis 18:9-12, Judges 6:14-35, 7:1-3, Jeremiah 1:5, Matthew 25:23, Acts 1:7-8, 1 Corinthians 7:17-19, 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, Ephesians 2:8-10, & Philippians 1:3-6

Who Are You?

 

    Have you ever looked in the mirror and asked yourself who am I?  You are who God says you are.  How do you know what God says you are?  You go the Bible to find the promises that God has made you.  You find how He describes His people and His enemies.  You figure out what category you are in and what category you want to be in, then you know where you stand with God.  When you know where you stand with God, then you know who you are.

    Your identity is not defined by the world.  God created you with your identity to be loved, known, and understood.  The world (Satan) will mess with your head if you allow it and he will confuse you.  God wants you to know how loved you are by how He made you, forgiven you, and gave you purpose.  You were not an accident.  You were not a whim.  You were chosen, created, and cared for from design to who you are today.

    God's love for you helps you overcome fear, low self esteem, rejection, or insignificant feeling to be courageous, capable, equipped, valuable, accepted, and purposeful.  Being a child of God empowers you to step out of the shadows to be the person He created you to be.  Life will try to tear you down, but the more you lean into God, the more strength you gain.  You become bold in your faith as you start seeing yourself through God's eyes.

    If you are Christian trying to mature in your faith, then you are a mighty warrior for God.  Your fight is done in prayer not physically.  You trust God to take care of all the things you can't fix on your own.  You may not feel strong, but do not give up.  The daily battles are making you stronger.  You are stronger than you think you are.  God's love gives you strength to do more than you are capable of doing on your own.

    Who you are matters.  It is the most important thing because it is your character.  Your character will define your actions.  A Godly character will answer God's calling well, but a bad character will abuse His calling and make it about themselves or how it could serve them instead of God.  Take the time to really look at who you are.  Is it the person you want to be?  Are you following Jesus to be more like him?  Do you want to change?  Are you listening to what God is telling you about who you are?  

Genesis 1:27, Joshua 1:6-9, Judges 6:11-12, Psalms 138:1-3, 139:13-16, John 1:10-13, Romans 8:26-30, Ephesians 2:8-10, & Colossians 1:11-14, 3:12-15

Overlooking God

 

    God meets you where you are and shows you how to follow Him faithfully.  It is your responsibility to grow and mature in your walk with Jesus.  You will never see everything that God is doing in and around your life, but you can see Him working if you look for it.  Do not ignore or overlook what He has done in your life.  Do not forget the sacrifice Jesus made so you can have salvation.

    God is with you every step and every phase of life.  He sees you.  He know you.  He will not abandon you.  Talk to Him boldly.  Ask Him all your questions and turn to His Word to find the answers.  Dig in and go deep.  You will find the answers that you need in life, but they will not always be what you want to hear.  Do not ignore what God tells you just because you don't like it.  You have to embrace all of the truth, not just the parts you like.

    You will find strength in God's truth.  It will enable you to live a bolder and more confident life for Him.  It is not an easy journey.  You have to face who you are and see your own short comings.  People may tell you that things are alright, but if God says they are not then you have to listen to Him over your peers.  You have to be willing to follow Jesus even when no one around you will.  The more you learn, listen, and obey the stronger you will become.

    Strength does not happen over night.  It takes time.  You have to constantly push past your comfort sone.  You have to endure a small amount of pain today to be able to face big things in life.  You want to be able to face reality through God's perspective.  You do not want to crumble under the pressure.  

    God has not changes.  His promises have not changed.  It is your perspective and response that changes throughout life.  When you respond in obedience life doesn't get easier.  It gets clearer.  You are empowered with purpose and passion to do what God has called you to do.  What applied when the Bible was written applies now.  He does not lie, so you can trust the truth.

    You can't overlook your journey.  You can't jump to the end and be this strong bold person for God.  It takes daily steps.  It takes prioritizing God, focus, and time.  Do not overlook your relationship with God.  It is the most important relationship of your life.  Accept the lessons that God is teaching you and trust that it will serve a bigger purpose down the road.  Hold onto your hope of salvation.  Trust that He will deliver you through the hard times.  

Genesis 16:13-14, Judges 6:7-14, Psalms 121:3-4, 139:1-6, Isaiah 49:15-18, Micah 6:8, 7:18-20, Matthew 22:37-40, Acts 17:30-31, Romans 3:23-26, Ephesians 6:5-9, & 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, 5:16-18

Abundant or Oppressed

 

    God is generous.  He wants to give to His people.  He wants good things for you, but He is not a push over.  You cannot take Him for granted and expect abundance.  You ignore Him and abuse the relationship, then He will put you in a place of oppression.  It is punishment, but it is the kind of punishment that is meant to benefit you.  A little hurt today is better than an eternity of hurt.

    A core principle is that you get an abundant life through your relationship with God.  Obedience leads to good things.  However, you live in the world where Satan has great influence.  You can be obedient and bad things still happen.  This is when you look inward and pray for any hidden sin.  If none is found, then ask God to reveal the truth.  Sometimes bad things happen for your benefit, slow you down, or for the benefit of someone else.  It is not always because you have sinned.  In these times hold onto the truth and keep your focus on the eternal instead of the current situation.

    If you feel like you are experiencing oppression, then turn to the Bible.  Pray over your feelings and truth to be revealed.  Not every feeling is accurate.  Feelings are indicators, but not truth tellers.  Get the true description of oppression from the Bible.  If you are truly being oppressed, then ask God to reveal the reason.  If it is due to personal sin, then repent and work toward making things better in life.  If not due to your personal sin, then ask God to show you how you can be used in this season.

    God is faithful.  He provides what you need in life.  He gives abundantly.  He is your defender.  He is your true refuge.  He is your liberator from suffering, evil, and hate that happen when you are oppressed.  God is loyal even when you are not.  His loyalty does not mean approval.  You have to repent your sin and return to God to get in good standing.  God has already gone up and beyond.  Everything else is up to you.

    Rebellion will lead to oppression, but that does not mean that God has abandoned you.  You can still find Him.  When you repent you can find the blessings in the small things.  You can see Him in the unexpected.  Gideon was blessed while hiding from his oppressors in a wine press threshing wheat.  You can expect blessings, but you can't expect how they will appear.  Blessing happen because He loves you.  Oppression happens to redirect you.

Deuteronomy 9:7-10, 28:45-48, 1 Chronicles 21:13-21, Psalms 9:7-10, 72:12-14, 130, Isaiah 54:11-15, Luke 4:18-19, John 10:6-10, 2 Corinthians 9:6-9, & Ephesians 3:20-21

Service for God

 

    Christians are called to serve God, but there are different ways to follow your calling.  You may be a leader in the church, community, or government.  Your service could be providing for physical or financial needs of people in the church.  You could help the poor.  You could go out into the world as a missionary.  You may be a prayer warrior, encouraging other Christians, provide wisdom and guidance, teach, be a protector, fight legally for God's way, or serve in some other area.  The part that matters is that you follow God obediently in your calling.

    Serving God is surrendering every aspect of yourself to Him and following Jesus' lead.  This may include always having to be in the spotlight, getting attention, or living a constantly stimulated life.  You may have to embrace a slower lifestyle and learn the value of the mundane life.  

    There is a lot of value in the careers that are over looked that provide for the family and bring service to people's lives.  These people have the opportunity to share Jesus to all types of people.  Some of these are plumbers, electricians, farmers, mechanics, and more.  It doesn't matter so much what you do in life as long as it is in service to God first, then your family.  God would not ask you to do anything that would leave your family worse off.  

    Serving God also means that you have to be willing to change course.  God may not keep you doing the same thing for your entire life.  He may place you somewhere else to serve.  He presents opportunity to understand Him better and serve well.  It normally starts off slow and boring.  There is purpose in that.  He is giving you the opportunity to prepare for what will come.  He tries to grow your faith and make you strong to face anything.  There is a lot of preparation before a big event.  People only notice the reveal, never all the work that got to that point.

    There is peace to be had in living an ordinary life of service.  It can keep your perspectives clear.  It can help you see more of what God is doing in the back ground.  It is an opportunity to seek God in the normalcy and not just when thing are chaotic or bad.  Walk with Jesus, so that you do not get used to life without him.  

    Do not allow life to become a routine without God or you will miss out on a lot of blessings and possibly really hurt the church along the way.  You were born to have an abundant life with Jesus, but that also means taking the time to invest in the relationship without getting bored and walking away.  Be thankful for the mundane and preparation that God places in your life.  It is a gift and will serve a purpose one day.

Leviticus 26:3-5, Judges 6:11-26, Psalms 1, 83:9-18, 100, Isaiah 33:10-13, Joel 2:18-24, Matthew 25:40, Mark 10:41-45, Luke 3:15-18, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 5:13-15, Colossians 3:22-25, & 1 Peter 4:10-11