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Psalms 50:8-14 NLT I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer. But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens. For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it. Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of goats? Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
We no longer offer blood sacrifices as an offering to God thanks to Jesus. For new covenant believers, our sacrificial offering is usually in the form of money.
Once we overcome that hurdle of distrusting God with our money and consistently give, it’s important that we don’t just go through the motions of giving. As we see from above, God didn’t need their animal sacrifices and He certainly doesn’t need our money. He owns it all. What God desires is thankful hearts.
When we give a portion of our increase as an offering to God, we should give with a heart of gratitude. We should think about all that He has done and when it’s time to press that button to give, or put that money in the bucket, we should simultaneously say thank you.
A thankful heart will always be important to God. As we give with a thankful heart, He’ll entrust us with more. Be thankful.
Psalms 50:23 NLT But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.”
#thankful #grateful #blessed #thankfulness
Psalm 76:11 GNT Give the Lord your God what you promised Him; bring gifts to Him, all you nearby nations. God makes everyone fear Him;
In some desperate season of our lives, we make promises to God. We could be drunk, sick, financially strapped, or having a tough time in our marriages and we make a promise to Him. It usually goes like this…” God, if you help me, I promise I’ll _________ (fill in the blank).”
Whether we know it or not, God takes note of these promises. When, if not before, the situation changes, He expects us to honor our vows. He expects us to do what we say we’ll do.
Once we honor our commitment to Him, an offering should be brought. It doesn’t always have to be money. We can offer our time serving in a ministry. We can offer our singing, cooking, organizing, etc. talents towards the Kingdom of God. The offering we bring in the Kingdom of God is designed to positively impact our local community AND plant a seed in our own lives. Our offering we’ll be repaid by God in an overflowing manner (Luke 6:38).
Do what you told God you were going to do and bring an offering to positively impact the Kingdom of God and enhance the quality of your life.
#promises #God #is #faithful #good #keeps #promise
Romans 8:35 NLT Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
Some people look at the success or lack of success as a reference of God’s love for them. They think if everything is going well in their lives, God loves them, however if things are not going so well, God has turned His back on them and took away His love.
Despite what we go through, God loves us. His love never stops, never ends, and is always present. He can’t help but to love us. Love is God’s nature.
Don’t ever think that God’s love is based on our performance or the blessings we experience. His love remains constant and it’s because of this love that we have the victory.
#loved #God #is #love #victory #in #Christ
Matthew 25:45 NLT “And He will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
Everyone needs help in some way. There are the poor who need our help with food, clothes, and shelter. Yea, but if we keep giving handouts to the poor, they’ll never take responsibility for themselves.
First of all, what they do after receiving our help has nothing to do with us. GOD instructed us to help. That’s all we need to focus on. Our help is not only being a blessing to them, but it’s blessing God who will ultimately bless us.
Secondly, if we feel like they’ll accept our handouts, but never really change, take another step by helping them change. Everyone hasn’t been taught about responsibility, being disciplined, or work ethic. Give people the tools to be successful.
Finally, and most importantly, allow the Holy Spirit to tell you who to help. There are some people who take advantage of our kindness. If we let the Holy Spirit tell us who to help, we can feel good knowing we’re doing God’s work, being a blessing, and sowing a seed in our own lives which will ultimately yield a harvest.
Don’t be afraid to help, thinking everyone who is poor is lazy or a scam artist. Be a blessing and help someone.
#help #someone #be #the #change #make #a #difference
Psalms 34:9-10 NLT Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.
Everything that we’ll ever need has been supplied by God through Jesus Christ. Every financial need, good employees for our business, and even a kidney has already been supplied by God through Jesus Christ.
All we have to do is trust Him and believe our needs have been made available through Him. These needs are not going to happen; they’ve already been made available through Jesus Christ.
Submitting ourselves to God and making the effort to do God’s will in every area of our lives amplifies the voice of God. Hearing and obeying His voice will direct us on how those needs have been met.
Don’t worry or stress on how your needs will be supplied. Trust that God has already supplied your needs. Now, use your faith to obtain what God has made available.
#every #promise #available #through #Christ #Holy #Spirit #listen #obey #trust #God #loves #me
1 Timothy 6:3 NLT Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life.
Are you tired of knowingly doing wrong? Are you tired of your flesh being in control? Do you want to do things God’s way? Well, renew your mind to the word of God by listening to wholesome teachings of Jesus.
The scripture says, wholesome teachings of Jesus promote a godly life. When we make time for these teachings, we’re setting ourselves up for success.
Find a minister who is teaching Christ. Make time to listen to it at least 30 minutes a day. Understanding what Christ has done and who we are in Christ will minimize, if not destroy the desire to sin. Ultimately, our lives will reflect what we’re being taught.
Watching sports, talk shows, and Netflix is fine to a point, but in order to live godly, let’s make time to hear the teachings of Christ every single day.
#listen #meditate #Jesus #Word #life
What if hell was visible? What if you literally saw your friends, family, and people you know be tortured, abused, and in pain by demons and fire for eternity? If there’s an ounce of compassion in us, hopefully that would make us want to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ more aggressively to the people who are still alive.
Unfortunately, a lot of believers are satisfied that they and their immediate family are saved. We’re usually not too concerned about others. We got our tickets to heaven and that’s all that matters.
Wrong!! That’s not all that matters. People matter to God, therefore, people should matter to us. We can’t see hell, but it’s real and people are going there daily. We can do something to prevent them from going there. We can minister to random people we see, ensure close friends and family members are saved, post Romans 10:9 on social media, or where a Jesus loves you t-shirt.
We can do something, but first, we must have love in our hearts for people. If we don’t, we wouldn’t care if they went to hell or not.
Imagine people dying and being separated from God for eternity. Let’s do our part to make sure people have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Acts 1:8 NLT But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
#tell #everyone #about #Jesus #God #is #love #loves #us
1 Timothy 6:10 NLT For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:17 NLT Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.
Some Christians read these two verses and use it as an crutch to stay poor. Or, they use these verses to criticize other believers who have riches.
They’re reading these verses out of context. Having riches is not the issue. The context is loving and trusting in money and riches.
KEEP READING…
1 Timothy 6:18 NLT Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.
If God had a problem with believers having money, He wouldn’t have provided instructions on what to do with our money. God’s word specifically tells us what to do with our wealth.
For those who feel it’s God’s will for believers to stay poor or live beneath their means, that’s not scriptural. Living beneath our means will be different for different people. With the right heart and the right motives, the more wealth we have, the more we can do for God’s Kingdom and people.
#give #share #kingdom #generosity
2 Timothy 2:2 NLT You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.
We don’t have to be an ordained minister or have gone to seminary in order to be qualified to teach God’s word. We don’t have to have one of the five ministry gifts or be a deacon in order to teach God’s word.
Any revelation we received from God’s word, we can teach. If all we know is Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins, teach it to others. There’s someone who needs to hear that from you. They may not receive that message from anyone else, but you.
Of course, be sure what you learn and ultimately teach is in context with God’s word. If not, we can unknowingly spread a lie.
On the other end, if you know the Greek and Hebrew versions of the bible, teach it to others. There’s someone who needs to learn that in order to grow in their understanding of Christ.
We often like to put the burden of sharing the gospel on ministers, however, God has qualified all of us to teach something. We may not have a congregation, but if we can teach a coworker or a friend about Christ or prayer, we’re doing our part for the Kingdom of God.
Be bold and unashamed to teach others what you know. And if you don’t know something, don’t be ashamed to say “I don’t know.”
#teach #share #Jesus
Psalms 143:8 NLT Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.
It takes humility in order for the psalmist to say, “show me where to walk.” They realized walking without God’s guidance could be detrimental or self-serving. Instead of doing what they want to do and going where they want to go, they humbled themselves and submitted their will to God.
In our own lives, we have ideas that seem positive. But just because it’s positive doesn’t mean it’s from God. God may have us go in another direction. We just have to trust Him.
Daily, we must wake up and ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Be willing to be a vessel for God to do His will and not our own. Trust that His plan will positively impact His Kingdom and simultaneously bless our lives. Let’s submit our will to His.
#make #Jesus #greater #magnify #God #first #follow #Holy #Spirit
Psalms 3:8 NKJV Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah
Even in the old covenant, God’s blessing was on His people. If you’ve made Jesus Christ Lord, you’re under a better covenant through Jesus according to Hebrews 8:6. That means the blessing is on your life. You are not going to be blessed. You are already blessed.
We don’t need a priest or a pastor to bless us. We are already blessed. We don’t need to do a bunch of righteous things in order to be blessed. Because of our belief in His sacrifice on our behalf, we are blessed.
Blessed means an empowerment to prosper. We’re blessed in our health. We’re blessed in our finances. We’re blessed in our marriages. We’re blessed in our careers. It may not look blessed all the time, but as we place our faith in this blessing, what we see will align with the blessing.
Know, believe, and receive the truth that you’re blessed.
#irrevocably #undeniably #forever #blessed #in #Christ #Jesus #Savior #God #Father
Isaiah 46:4 NLT I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.
God wants to be our God. That means He wants to guide, direct, and provide for us. He doesn’t want us facing life with our limited logic. He wants to be the One who clears our paths and delivers us so that He can get the credit.
God doesn’t want to be limited to being our God when times are tough. Even when we’re experiencing blessings and everything is going well in our lives, He still wants to be our God. He doesn’t want us pushing Him to the side when we become successful saying, “I’ll take it from here, God.” He wants to be our God when times are difficult and when times are prosperous.
The biggest hurdle we face is letting go and giving God full access and control. Sometimes we think we can do a better job with our lives than He can. We’re only deceiving ourselves.
Don’t deny God the opportunity to be God in every area of your life. Let Him be God in your decisions, in your finances, in parenting, and in facing conflicts. Let God be God.
#let #God #trust #rely #follow #Jesus #HolySpirit
2 Timothy 4:16-17 NLT The first time I was brought before the judge, no one came with me. Everyone abandoned me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death.
Some of us may have been abandoned. Some of our parents abandoned us, our spouse may have abandoned us, and/or our children may have abandoned us. Regardless of who’s abandoned us, God has not. He stands with us forever.
He told us that He’ll never leave us nor forsake us. He’ll be with us until the end of time. So, we don’t have to accept the label of having abandonment issues. It’s sad when people who claim they love us leave us, but that’s not God. He’s always there.
He’ll give us the strength to overcome that hurt and He’ll either reconcile that damaged relationship or replace that person with someone better. God has not nor will He ever abandon you.
#never #alone #Emmanuel #Godiswithus #God #loves #us
Psalms 128:1-4 NLT How joyful are those who fear the Lord— all who follow His ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be! Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear Him.
When we honor, reverence, and wholeheartedly respect God and follow His ways, look at what He promises.
- Joy
God will reveal ways where we’ll have joy and enjoy life. Even if everything isn’t going the way we hoped, we’ll still have joy. He’ll remind us what He did in the past to incite joy. He’ll show us a promise in His Word that will cause joy. He’ll give us a vision of our future that will get us excited. He may even show us little things that bring us joy like, our child acting silly or a funny movie. - Prosperity
Prosperous means successful in material terms; flourishing financially. That’s a word many religious-minded people don’t like. They feel like wealth and too much success somehow separates us from God. If that were the case, why is God promising something that will ultimately separate us from Him? It’s not the prosperity that causes us to turn our backs on God. It’s our mindset before prosperity comes. If we truly reverence God, we’ll advance His Kingdom with our prosperity. - Fruitful
When we reverence God, He promises no barren wives. Some may know or be wives who haven’t had children. For those who haven’t had children yet, I encourage you to reverence God and put your faith in this scripture, along with the other scriptures promising a child.
What about the age or medical conditions of the wife?
With God, that doesn’t matter. We MUST believe all things are possible if we believe (Mark 9:23).
These are promises in God’s word. Read, receive, and rejoice over them. When we have faith in God’s word, they MUST come to pass.
#rejoice #God #is #faithful #good #loving #kind #generous #forus
Philippians 3:1 NLT Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.
We will face difficult situations that challenge our faith in God. There may be marital problems, difficulties on our jobs, our business not doing as well as we hoped, or our children acting out of character. Regardless of what we’re facing, rejoice in the Lord.
We’re not rejoicing because of the difficulties. We’re rejoicing because we’re grateful that God has already made a solution to the problem. He knew we would face challenges and He’s already made a way for us to escape (1 Cor. 10:13).
None of this works if we let go of our faith and quit on God. Whatever happens in life, rejoice knowing God has already worked it out.
#rejoice #God #greatly #loves #us
Some of us go to church or listen to a particular pastor online faithfully. As we listen, we’re growing in our understanding of who God is, what Jesus has done, and who we are in Christ. However, when an offering is requested, for various reasons, some of us find a reason not to give. That’s selfish. If we’re spiritually being fed by a ministry, we should financially support that ministry.
Although we’re growing spiritually, for various reasons, some of us have an issue with giving to the church. So when an offering is requested, we’ll give to another charitable organization thinking it’s all the same. That’s like going to Perry’s Steakhouse and eating a steak that we enjoyed, and when it’s time to pay, we go across the street to McDonald’s and pay them. We should give where we’re being fed.
It takes finances for the Kingdom of God to further expand and take over the kingdom of darkness. Stop finding excuses not to give towards a loving Kingdom that’s blessing you.
1 Corinthians 9:14 NLT In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it.
Galatians 6:6 NLT Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them.
1 Timothy 5:17 NLT Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching.
#Kingdom #giving #first #grow #mature #give
1 Corinthians 4:3 NLT As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point.
Some people have the tendency to be concerned about what people think about them. They change their hair, go into debt to keep up with an image, get implants, or run themselves ragged all because they want people to think well of them.
This is an insecurity. We shouldn’t be concerned about what people think about us. Their opinion about us doesn’t matter. If God didn’t instruct us to do something like, buy a car or go out our way for someone else, we shouldn’t do it. Now, there’s nothing wrong with buying a car or doing nice things, but if our motivation is to make people think well of us, that’s wrong.
We should only want to please God. A relationship with Him through Jesus Christ makes Him happy. And since He’s happy with us, that’s all that matters.
#God #first #Jesus #relationship #happy #joy
If you’re saved and you never gave a single dollar towards the Kingdom of God, God would still love you, you won’t be cursed, and you would still go to heaven.
If you gave all your money and assets away to the Kingdom of God, God wouldn’t love you more than the one who gave nothing, you would still go to heaven; however, your giving has activated a law in the earth. Your giving has activated the law of sowing and reaping.
When we give as God tells us to give, we’re displaying our trust in Him. We’re showing God, ourselves, and everyone else looking that we trust God. It’s one thing to say we trust God. It’s another thing to display our trust in Him.
Secondly, when we give, the law of sowing and reaping is activated. Sowing and reaping is a God-given law in the earth. It’s similar to the law of gravity. No one is exempt. It will work for anyone (saved or unsaved).
Any time we give something, especially to the Kingdom of God, we’re sowing a seed. The magnitude of our seed determines our harvest. If we sow 80% of our increase, we’ll reap a significant harvest. If we give 0.01% of our increase, we’ll still reap, but our harvest will be minimal.
Sowing and reaping is not limited to money. If we give our time and talents towards the Kingdom of God, we’ll reap a harvest of time and talents. When we give towards the expansion of the Kingdom of God, God has obligated Himself to ensure our harvest comes back to us. Not just dollar for dollar or time for time, but 30, 60, or even 100 times more than we’ve sown (Mark 4:20).
Luke 6:38 NLT Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
#trust #God #Kingdom #giving #generosity #profits
Before God made human beings, He prepared everything that they would ever need. He made land, trees, fruit, animals, etc. He didn’t put humans in the earth and create things as they needed them. He thought of everything we would ever need and prepared it before our arrival.
Where were humans before everything was prepared? In God.
As we wait on promises to be prepared for us, it’s important that we remain with Christ in God. It’s important that we’re spending time in His presence and in His word focused on Him.
We don’t want to get our eyes off of Him and become anxious. We don’t want to go ahead of Him and try to make a blessing ourselves. As we remain in Him, when everything is prepared, we’ll receive something only He could have prepared. While you wait, remain in Him.
Colossians 3:1-4 NLT Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
#God #first
Hebrews 3:17 NLT And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when He took an oath that they would never enter His rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed Him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter His rest.
The children of Israel were promised a great land flowing with milk and honey. The land, however, was occupied by giants. Although God promised the land to them and He’s done major miracles for them in the past, the majority of them didn’t believe they could overtake the giants. Because of their unbelief, the children of Israel died in the wilderness not receiving what God had promised.
God has great things for you. But some of you look at how difficult it is to get these things and you quit trusting God. Even though He’s done great things for you in the past, you feel like this obstacle is too big for God.
This kind of unbelief is what caused the children of Israel to die in the wilderness. Don’t let this happen to you. Don’t die seeing happy marriages, but not believing it can happen for you. Don’t die seeing people with great wealth and believe it’s too difficult for God to make you wealthy. Don’t die in unbelief thinking it’s not God’s will for you to have children or die thinking God can’t restore a broken relationship with your children.
No matter how big or impossible the obstacle may seem, believe God for it. God has never nor will He ever fail.
Cross Reference: Numbers 13 & 14
#God #manifests #dreams #possibilities #havefaith #trust #believe #Godlovesus
Colossians 3:16 NLT Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
Some of us know the gospel of Jesus Christ, but for various reasons (fear, uncomfortability, embarrassment, pride, ego, etc.) we choose to keep it to ourselves.
We have friends and family who we know can benefit from hearing the good news about Christ. We see them struggling in life, making bad decisions, and are truly deceived, but for those various reasons, we’re choosing to watch them drown and not throw them a life-preserver.
Once we’ve received the gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s our responsibility to share it with others. Some may feel like they don’t know what to say or how to say it. The Holy Spirit is in us. He’ll supernaturally guide us on what to say. We don’t need to be a theologian to tell someone about Jesus and the goodness of God. We can share the gospel in our personality.
Have a one on one conversation with coworkers, post the gospel on social media, or buy a “Jesus Loves You” t-shirt. Let’s do our part to share and not hoard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
#share #Jesus #savelives
Graced To Do God's Will 