Graced To Do God's Will

Ephesians 5:1 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.

The scripture tells us to imitate God. To do that, we have look through the scriptures to know the heart of God and the actions of God.

The heart of God is love (1 John 4:8). God is love. All He knows is love. As imitators of God, we are called to love. We don’t only love when we feel like it or when someone loves us back. We make the decision to love because we’re imitators of our Father.

God calls those things that be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). Since God believes that His words have the power to change situations as it pleases Him (in Genesis) and we have power in our words, according to Proverbs 18:21, we can change our world with our words.

God forgives (1 John 2:12). God has forgiven everything we’ve done wrong because of Jesus’ sacrifice. We too can forgive our brother or sister who has wronged us. We’re not above God where we can’t forgive. If He can forgive, we can too.

These are just a few ways we can and should be imitating God. Look through the scriptures to see others ways we can imitate God.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (AMP) for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises]—

When a loved one doesn’t feel well, don’t keep staring at them, especially if they have a look of pain or sorrow. Continuing to look at them, feeling sorry for them, is counterproductive to our faith. If both of you believe God’s word, both of you should know we’re healed (1 Pet. 2:24). If you’re going to look, look at them as if they are their healthy selves.

The same goes with our finances. If we have more bills than money, it does us no good to stare at our checking account. That’s walking by sight. Look to God’s word where it says all our needs are met (Phil. 4:19).

This also applies to our children’s behavior or grades, marriage issues, or other desires. If we focus on what’s wrong, we’ll never have the faith to obtain God’s best.

Let’s not be moved by what we see in the natural. Be moved by the word of God.

Luke 17:3‭-‬6 NKJV Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

In order for us to forgive someone who has severely hurt us, it’s going to require faith. We may not feel like we can forgive them, and that may be true in our own strength, but by faith we can forgive.

Jesus illustrates how to apply our faith to forgiveness using the mulberry tree. The tree represents unforgivness. Once we identify unforgiveness within us, using the belief in our hearts and the power in our words, we can say to unforgiveness, ‘be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. In other words, we’re telling unforgiveness to leave our souls.

In order for us to get this mustard seed sized faith to forgive, it requires hearing the word of God on forgiveness. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17). The more we hear on forgiveness, the more we’ll want to forgive and the stronger our faith becomes to forgive.

Let’s not live with bitterness and unforgiveness in our hearts. It’s only negatively impacting our lives and limiting what God can do in our lives (Mark 11:22-26). Use faith to forgive.

Inspired by Charles Capps

Psalm 86:5 “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon You.”

God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good. Since He’s always good, His goodness can become common to us. It’s something we expect. It’s like a father giving a child $100 every day. At first, they may be excited about the money, but eventually the appreciation wears off. If we’re not mindful, it can be the same with God. We can become ungrateful because we’re expecting more.

We may be a little upset that we didn’t get that job. Even though we didn’t get that job, God’s goodness is still present and should be recognized. We still have our health, food, clothes, family, and all we need. His goodness is still at work in our lives.

Don’t devalue God’s goodness because it’s not a huge gift or a major desire. Recognize the seemingly little things He’s always doing for us. This will keep us from being spoiled Christians.

Psalm 107:1 “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.”

Mark 11:22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.

Have faith in God. Not in your own abilities, not in your finances, and not in anyone else. Have faith in God.

Faith in God encompasses having faith in His word, in what Jesus accomplished for us, and in what He personally says to you.

Faith is more than believing. It’s acting on our belief. He may tell us to do a specific thing to obtain a desire. Acting on what He told us is a display of our faith in Him.

If He didn’t give us specific instructions yet, we can easily act on our belief through confession. 2 Corinthians 4:13 says, we believe therefore we speak. We say what God says. We say we’re healed, protected, loved and accompanied by God. We say we believe we have received a specific desire. Whatever God says in His word, believe it and act on it.

Have and keep your faith in God. Don’t look to anything else. Have faith in God.

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Submit means to come under a certain way. When we submit to God, it means we’re doing things God’s way.

We may submit to God in certain areas of our lives, but God desires complete submission. Don’t just submit in one or two areas. Completely submit to God. This includes in the areas of forgiveness, giving, loving our enemies, and humility.

Submission is all about trust. If you don’t trust the One to whom you’re submitting, you’ll never fully submit to His ways. Trust that whatever God is requesting us to do is not going hurt us or make us weak. It’s going to make us better people and better vessels for God.

When Adam was first created, God only gave him one command. He was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). Notice, God didn’t give Adam an excessive amount of rules like He gave to Moses. More than rules, God desired a relationship with him. He wanted to walk and talk with Adam. God wanted Adam to go to Him if he had any questions. God’s original plan for man was relationship, not rules.

When sin entered the earth, God had to implement rules in order for mankind to survive. Jesus fulfilled those rules and now we have a chance to operate in relationship with God.

It’s not about religious rules. That brings bondage. Go back to the original plan. It’s about walking and talking with God throughout the day and letting Him lead us by His Spirit. It’s about knowing our sins have been paid for and we’re in Christ. Have a relationship, not rules.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7 NKJV

“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:2‭-‬3 NKJV

We read these scriptures a lot to our children, but as we get older, this scripture gets less significant. Although most of us are adults, it’s still important and beneficial to honor our parents.

Honoring our parents as adults doesn’t mean we do everything they tell us. It means we respect their position as our parents. Whether they did a great or a lousy job at raising us, we still honor them because through them, they gave us life. Even if we didn’t know our parents, we still honor them for who they are. It may be difficult, but not impossible.

As we can see, honoring our parents has a promise attached. We’re promised long life. How is long life associated with honoring our parents? Who knows, but it is.

Whoever your parents are, honor them because this is right.

Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights.
I Samuel 30:11‭-‬12 NKJV

When David and his army retutned to Ziklag, they discovered the Amalekites took their wives and children while they were gone. As they pursued the Amalekites, they saw a starving Egyptian in the field. They could have just passed him by and focused on the mission of retrieving their wives and children, but David sowed a seed of kindness.

Little did David know, the Egyptian was a servant to the Amalekites and told them exactly where they were located. They were able to kill the Amalekites and retrieve their wives and children.

If David would not have sowed a seed of kindness into the Egyptian’s life, he would not have known where his wives and valuables were located.

We never know how our seed of kindness will benefit us in return. It may return in the form of help, favor, wisdom, access, notoriety, or promotion. Even if no one sees your kindness, God sees your kindness and we have a promise from Him that whatever good any person does, the same goodness they will receive from the Lord (Ephesians 6:8).

Be a vessel for God and a light in the earth by sowing a seed of kindness and expect to reap a harvest from the kindness you sow.

So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” -I Samuel 30:8 NKJV

David made an inquiry of the Lord regarding his battle strategy. God responded and gave him direction.

We too, should make inquiries of the Lord about direction in our own lives. Should I apply for this job? Should I marry this person? Should I buy this house? Should I invest in these stocks?

Once we make our inquiry, we wait for an answer. Let’s not be impatient and act before God responds. Once He answers, no matter how unusual it seems, act on that answer immediately.

Inquiring of the Lord will save us from bumping our heads and heartache. We may think we have it all figured out, but the Lord knows all. Let’s seek Him on all our decisions.

Proverbs 30:32 If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.

Evil thoughts will come. We can’t help that. That’s a byproduct of this flesh body living in a cursed world because of sin. Thoughts, by themselves, have no power. They have no power until we act on them or give them power through our words (Prov 18:21). So, when an evil thought comes, don’t say it. Don’t give it power. Cover your mouth.

Evil thoughts are not limited to killing someone or robbery. Evil thoughts are anything contrary to the word of God. Your body and mind may say you’re sick, but don’t say that. Declare you’re healed (1 Pet. 2:24). Your bank account may be low. Instead of saying you’re broke or don’t have enough, say wealth and riches are in my house (Ps. 112:3). The same thing goes with what they say on the news. We don’t have to repeat it. That only makes the negative report stronger.

Any and all evil, negative, or perverted thoughts should not be spoken. Don’t give it power. Say what God says.

Jeremiah 32:17 “O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!

From healing a headache to healing a marriage, it’s all the same with God. If God blessed you with a good parking spot, He can bless you with a million dollars. There’s no distinction with Him. If you’ve seen Him do one thing, He can do it again.

One problem or request is not bigger than another with God. It’s all the same with Him. It may seem like a big project to us, but with God, it’s all easy. Nothing is too hard for God.

If we maintain our belief in God’s ability to manifest our desires, we’ll have whatever we requested. A lot of times, we look at the situation and think it’s impossible. If we doubt God’s word from coming to pass, it is impossible. However, if we continue to believe in spite of what we see, God’s power will bring ANY desire to pass.

Remember, nothing is too hard for God.

The godly are showered with blessings; the words of the wicked conceal violent intentions.
Proverbs 10:6 NLT

The godly are those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. We don’t have to earn our godly status. We simply receive our godly status through our belief in Jesus as Lord.

Since we are the godly, we might as well take a shower. Our shower is not only with soap and water. Our shower is a blessing shower from God. This shower is a guarantee to any of the godly who are willing to believe.

A blessing shower consists of favor, increase, prosperity, great health and more. Notice, there’s no end to this shower. This shower can and should go on through our lifetime. The only thing that can stop our shower is our unbelief. But if we’re willing to believe that God will shower us with blessings, we’ll continously have all that we need and more.

The Lord will not let the godly go hungry, but he refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked.
Proverbs 10:3 NLT

The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled; the hopes of the godly will be granted.
Proverbs 10:24 NLT

When the bible mentions the godly, it doesn’t mean a perfect person and it doesn’t mean a person always on their best behavior. The godly are people who are in right relationship with God through Jesus. If we’ve accepted Jesus as Lord, we are considered the godly.

As we can see, the godly, have a few promises. A great promise from God is no matter how bad it gets, God will make sure we have all we need. Verse 3 says, we’ll NEVER go hungry. Gas prices may be high and job stability may be unsure for some, but the godly will have all we need.

In verse 24, He ensures us hope. Any and every hope or desire will be granted. From a small desire like a good seat at church to a major desire like a new house, God ensures us that our hopes will be granted.

For the godly, our needs and desires will always be met. That’s God’s guarantee. Believe that. Receive that. And don’t let what you see stop your belief in His promises to the godly.

And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people.
Mark 6:5‭-‬6 NLT

Jesus couldn’t do any miracles in His hometown because of their unbelief. It wasn’t because He lacked power. It was because they limited Him due to their unbelief.

So what did Jesus do after being astonished because of their unbelief? He went from village to village teaching the people.

The key to overcoming doubt and unbelief in God’s word is being appropriately taught the word of God. Today, through books, TV, and the internet, we have access to all these great teachers of the word of God.

WARNING Every person who calls themselves a minister or teacher is not accurately teaching the word of God. It’s important to let the Holy Spirit lead you on who to listen to.

As we consistently listen to good teaching, faith comes (Romans 10:17). And faith is what we need to obtain all the promises of God.

And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people.
Mark 6:5‭-‬6

Jesus was limited in what He could do in His hometown. It wasn’t because He lacked power. He was limited because of their unbelief.

Our belief or unbelief is what opens or closes the window of heaven. It’s not God withholding something from us. It’s our belief or unbelief.

It’s simple. If we believe and maintain our belief in what God has promised in His word, despite what we see, we’ll have what we desire. If we’re doubting or in unbelief in what God has promised us, we limit what God can do in our lives.

The choice is up to us. Don’t limit God. He has all these wonderful things He wants to give and do for us. Let Him do it by maintaining belief in His word.

Revelations 1:5-6 says, through Christ we’re kings and priests. As a king, let’s look at the benefits.

How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! He shouts with joy because you give him victory. For you have given him his heart’s desire; you have withheld nothing he requested. Interlude You welcomed him back with success and prosperity. You placed a crown of finest gold on his head. He asked you to preserve his life, and you granted his request. The days of his life stretch on forever. Your victory brings him great honor, and you have clothed him with splendor and majesty. You have endowed him with eternal blessings and given him the joy of your presence.
Psalms 21:1‭-‬6 NLT

These are promises given to every born-again king. We have victory, granted desires, restoration, prosperity, everlasting life, and more. This is part of our inheritance.
Receive this and don’t let it go. Know that as a born-again child of God, you are a king and these are the benefits of royalty.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Isaiah 26:3 NLT

When we keep our thoughts on God and all that He has promised and all that He’s already accomplished, we’ll remain in perfect peace.

The problem we have is when our thoughts are not on Him. When our thoughts are not on Him, we’ll experience depression, sadness, boredom, fear, worry, anxiety, and any other negative emotion out there. If we pay more attention to what’s going on in the world, what’s not happened in our lives yet, or negative events that have already occurred, peace can’t remain.

Let’s maintain our peace by focusing on God and what He’s promised. If we find ourselves going from one negative thought to another, we need to catch ourselves and think on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Phil 4:8).

Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you.
Isaiah 26:12 NLT

Some of us think all of our degrees, promotions, and accolades come from OUR intelligence, OUR discipline, who WE know, and who WE have helped. Some of us elevated ourselves onto a pedestal and totally eliminated God.

Let’s face it, any accomplishment and anything we’ve ever achieved came from God. It was God who gave us the intelligence to get all those degrees. It was God moving the heart of our superiors to grant us that promotion. It was God who gave us that gift or talent that’s being recognized by others. It was God who blessed us with the ability to do anything special.

Open up your mouth and give God glory for ALL HE has done.

You can be sure of this: The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him.
Psalms 4:3 NLT

We, the godly, have an assurance that we belong to God and He answers us when we call. It’s not a possibility, but a guarantee.

He doesn’t set us apart and answer when we call because we’ve been so good and done so many good works. He sets us apart because He made a commitment to care for the ones who made a commitment to Christ.

Don’t second guess if God is really for you based on what you did or didn’t do. It’s not about us, but the works of Christ. He’s committed to those who are committed to Him. Whether you’ve been on your best behavior or just messed up last night, if you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life, you belong to God and you’ll always have His undivided attention.

You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
Luke 1:45

Blessed means empowered to prosper. When we believe the word of God, we become empowered to prosper.

Believing is half the battle when it comes to obtaining the promises of God. The devil will throw darts of doubt in our minds that will have us question if God’s word will come to pass. If God’s word says it, we must believe it.

The other half of the battle is acting on what we believe. If we believe what God said and act on what we believe through our confession or some other God-inspired instructions, we’ll have everything God wants us to have.

Let’s believe so we won’t miss out on our blessing.

In Grinding Part 1, we mentioned when people say they’re grinding, they’re usually working a lot and losing sleep. The only being who doesn’t need sleep is God.

Psalm 121:4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.

If we’re up long hours “grinding” only getting around 4 hours of sleep, that can negatively impact our health. Studies say lack of sleep weakens our immune system.

We need to ask ourselves if God instructed us to do all of this or if we’re depending on ourselves to be wealthy and successful. The world says grinding is the key to our goals, but what does God’s word say about that? Proverbs 10:22 says the blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

This scripture doesn’t mean we don’t work. It means we work under the blessing. Under the blessing, we don’t have to “grind” like the rest of the world. We let God lead us on when and where we should work and let the blessing do the rest.

It’s all about our dependence on God. If we’re grinding like the world, we’re more dependent on ourselves than God and that can lead to exhaustion and an early death. Depend on God rather than self.

Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

When we hear the term or people say they’re grinding, that usually means they have more than one source of income, they’re working long hours, and/or they’re working more than 5 days a week. Society pats them on the back because they see them working hard to provide for their family or accomplish a goal.

God wants us to rely on Him. If God instructs us to work long hours or have two jobs, that’s one thing. However, if we’re doing all these things in our own efforts, that’s another thing. 

If we’re relying on ourselves to get ahead, what’s the point of God being around? How can we use our faith? Or, are we only calling God when we’re exhausted?

It may be in our best interests to rest, but we have a commitment to work. That lack of rest may impact our health or other responsibilities.

Grinding sounds great to certain people, but be sure it’s God who’s leading you to grind.

What’s your Jericho walk?

One of the most illogical stories in the Bible is the Israelites walking around the Jericho wall to take the city. They had trained men ready to fight, but God told them to walk around the city for 7 days. How dumb is that? Although they were possibly confused and probably were wondering if Joshua heard God correctly, they obeyed. And without losing a single person in the battle, they were able to take the city.

What illogical thing has God told you to do? Is it consistently giving (financially) to the Kingdom of God in order to become debt free? Is it getting off social media in order to obtain a husband or wife? Is it downsizing to start a business or a ministry?

Whatever the thing is, do it. It may not make sense now, but as we trust Him and obey, we’ll obtain our desired outcome. Trust Him.

You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”
Joshua 6:3‭-‬5 NLT

For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:10‭-‬11 NLT

People often feel like something is missing in their lives. They’ll say if they only had a husband or wife or children they would be happy. If they only had a house they would be complete. If they only had a better career they would be fulfilled.

All of these things are nice, but they’re missing the key ingredient. Fulfillment doesn’t come from things. Fulfillment comes from a continuously developing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

When we put Jesus at the center of our lives and focus our attention on doing what the Father specifically asks of us, we’ll be fulfilled.

Thoughts will come that will make us think that these external things are what we need to be fulfilled, but that’s not true. We should rebuke those thoughts as quickly as they come. True fulfillment comes from God. When that’s settled in our minds, we’ll maintain our peace, joy, and contentment.

We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
1 Thessalonians 2:12 NLT

As born-again believers, we know what’s right and wrong. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and we’ll get a conviction when we’re doing or about to do something that displeases God or is not in our best interests.

We can ignore the Holy Spirit and keep doing what we feel like doing or change our ways. If we continue to ignore the Holy Spirit, our soul will get callus and we’ll begin to justify why it’s okay to go against the word of God. That leads to natural consequences like, being emotionally hurt, divorced, sick, or broke.

When God instructs us to live a certain way, He’s not trying to ruin our fun. He knows what’s best for us and He knows what we need. Walk in a manner that’s pleasing to the Lord to bring Him honor and so that we can enjoy this life.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.

How do we really know if the Holy Bible is actually the word of God and not a person’s opinion? This has been a question that’s been asked for years. The answer is, we don’t know.

There’s no evidence to confirm the bible is the written word of God. That’s why there’s faith. Faith is believing without actual proof or evidence.

We have faith in other texts. All those scientific theories, school textbooks, and articles we take at face value. We don’t question it or do the research ourselves to confirm what they’re saying is true. We’ll just believe it. But when it comes to the bible, we have 1001 questions about its validity. We can believe other people’s text to be true, why not believe the bible as true?

2 Timothy 3:16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. God inspired people to write His word. We either believe this or we don’t. For best results, believe the word of God.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 NLT For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

People pleasing is something that sneaks up on us. We think we don’t care about what people may say or think about us, but a lot of times we do.

If we don’t care about what people think about us, we’ll unapologetically praise God, witness the gospel to everyone, and represent Jesus to the fullest.

If we don’t care about what people think about us, we’ll focus our attention on pleasing God instead of compromising. We’ll make sure we don’t engage in sin with others for their acceptance. We’ll make sure we don’t stay in relationships that God is telling us to leave.

People’s approval is not our goal. Let’s keep the mindset of pleasing God, not people.

You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.
1 Thessalonians 2:2 NLT

Our commission from Jesus Christ is to go out and preach the gospel to everyone (Mark 16:15). It takes boldness to preach the gospel.

Some people may disassociate themselves from us. People may laugh at us. Some may even curse us out.
We must be bold enough to be okay with their rejection. They’re not rejecting us. Unfortunately, they’re rejecting Christ. Although they may reject Christ now, we must continue to believe that our words are a seed that will hopefully lead them to accepting Christ.

This is one of the few things God requires of us in the New Covenant. Let’s remove our reputation, our feelings, and our status out of the way and boldly preach Christ to everyone (waiters, salespeople, Amazon delivery people, relatives, co-workers, and more).

“I treat people kindly. I don’t bother anybody. I help when I can. I’m a good person. I don’t know why this happened to me.”

Some of us think our good deeds can keep us from facing difficulties. We may blame God because we think our good efforts should have awarded us protection from God. That’s not how this works.

No matter how good we think we are, we’ll all experience difficulties. On top of that, there’s a real devil who likes no one and He wants to see us all suffer and be destroyed (John 10:10).

Like getting tackled is a part of football, difficulties are a part of life. How we handle these difficulties determines the source and the strength of our foundation. If our foundation is in our good efforts, it won’t last because we’ll always feel like it’s unfair when we go through difficulties. But, if our source is in Christ, it will turn that tragedy into a triumph and the more we rely on Christ to get us through, the stronger our foundation becomes.

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 NLT

Romans 10:9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

There’s only one thing we need to do to be and remain saved. We must believe that Jesus is Lord. Saying Jesus is Lord means, He is the One who sacrificed Himself for our sins and He reigns in our lives.

SALVATION is not going to church, reading our bibles cover to cover once a month, or keeping the Mosaic law. These things are good and beneficial, but they don’t make or keep us saved. SALVATION is not not listening to secular music, not enjoying ourselves, and not wearing makeup.

We are 100% saved when we’re listening to secular music, watching TV, playing games, wearing makeup, and not reading our bibles. God sees our belief (not works) in the sacrifice of Jesus and counts it as righteous.

1 Peter 2:4 NLT You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.

If anyone knows anything about being rejected, it’s Jesus. Unfortunately, He’s still being rejected today. Although He was rejected, He overcame rejection and fulfilled His purpose in the earth.

We may have been rejected by parents, a sibling, a spouse, a boyfriend or girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean we can’t accomplish our purpose.

We overcome people’s rejection by magnifying God’s acceptance. When we know God loves us, He’s never going to leave us, He’s truly for us, and wants to make us happy, people’s acceptance becomes minor.

The pain of past rejections may still be there. We usually create walls in order to avoid being hurt again. However, when we give that pain to God, renew our minds with what His word says about us, and allow His love to heal our wounds, we can go through life without being guarded.

Let those pains go and receive God’s acceptance and fulfill purpose.

Psalm 71:14 But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise Thee yet more and more.

There’s a gym enthusiast and motivational speaker named, C.T. Fletcher who says, “it’s still your set” when a person is tired from the workout, but they haven’t completed the workout. Fletcher will let a person recover, but he wants to see the person complete the workout.

When we’ve experienced heartache, drama, faith fights, and fatigue, we should adopt something similar to Fletcher to motivate ourselves to continue on. We can say, “it’s still glory to God.” Life may have hit us with sickness, lack of sleep, thoughts of worry, or temporary uncertainty. Regardless of what we’ve gone through, we should tell ourselves, the world, and the devil, “it’s still glory to God.”

That lets EVERYONE know, regardless of what we face, God will still get the glory.

Don’t let anything stop you from giving glory to God.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
1 John 4:16 NLT

It’s important to trust in God’s love. When we know and trust in God’s love, we’ll experience all of His promises for us.

When we trust in the love of God, we know trouble is an opportunity for God to manifest His power. When trust in God’s love, we’ll believe sickness can’t remain in our bodies. When we trust in His love, we’ll believe all His word.

We’ll easily dismiss the promise or the statement of someone we don’t know or love. But when we know a person loves us, it’s easy to believe them.

Everything hinges from the love of God. Trust in His love and obtain all that He has for you.

Psalm 68:35 O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary.
The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people.
Blessed be God!

God’s goodness is so amazing until all we can say is, Sheesh!

Let’s look at His track record.
He sent His Son Jesus to be punished for our sins (Rom 3:25). He’s given us abundant life through Jesus (John 10:10). Jesus taught us how to use our God-given authority to operate in the earth (Matt. 4:1-11). He’s given us authority over the enemy Satan (Luke 10:19). He exchanged our poverty for His wealth (2 Cor. 8:9). He exchanged our sickness for health (Isaiah 53:5). He exchanged eternal death for eternal life (John 3:16). Our words have power (Prov. 18:21). Anything is possible if we believe in the finished works of Jesus (Matt. 19:26). He wants to give us the desires of our hearts (Mark 11:23-24). He’s given us His Holy Spirit to guide, reveal, and empower us (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 2:10; Rom. 8:14).

We get all of this by simply saying yes to Jesus. No work, effort, or sacrifices necessary. Sheesh!!!

Give Him the glory for all the wonderful things He’s done.

Romans 10:9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

When people read Romans 10:9, they think of making Jesus Lord over their lives from a broad, distant perspective. They usually don’t specify His Lordship down to each individual area of their lives.

He wants to be and should be Lord in our finances, our health, our relationships, our employment, in parenting our children. Everything. We shouldn’t say He’s Lord, but deny Him access to certain areas in our lives.

We shouldn’t make a move without His approval. It’s not because we’re incapable of making decisions. But, it’s because we’re honoring the One who saved us by including Him in all our affairs.

When we make an effort to include Him in everything we do, He provides successful results. Stop leaving your life to chance and let God be Lord.

Philippians 2:9-11 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Psalms 5:3 NLT

In the old covenant, where no one was 100% righteous, they still had an expectation for God to hear and answer their requests.

In this new covenant, all those who are born-again are righteous. Because of Jesus, we have right standing with God and 24 hour access to Him. 1 John 5:15 says, since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

Altogether, for the new covenant believer, because of Jesus, we are righteous, holy, have access to God, and can get any requests answered. How awesome is that?

Bring anything (relationship issues, financial struggles, problems, a good parking space, etc.) to God and expect Him to hear and answer every request.

Proverbs 3:4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.

When we get born-again, we become righteous (have right standing with God – Romans 5:1-2). Because we’re righteous, favor is on our lives (Psalm 5:12).

In the old covenant, they had to earn their favor by keeping all the commandments. In the new covenant, we can experience favor by faith (acting on what we believe in the word of God).

When we know we have right standing with God by faith, we can expect favor in our lives. When we go into situations and believe something good is going to happen to us (faith), we’ll have what we believe.

We can expect to receive preferential treatment, promotion, and unusual mercy. People won’t understand why they’re helping us out, but it’s just “something” about us. That something is favor.

Favor is there for any born-again believer who is willing to believe for it.

1 John 4:17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

When we hear, “on the day of judgment” some of us get afraid. We think of a big God looking over our entire life judging us for whatever we’ve done wrong. That’s totally not the case.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! When God sees believers, He sees us in Christ.

Judgment day is not a day where He looks at our works. If we did so many good things, we’re going to heaven, but if our bad things outweighs our good, we’re going to hell. No number of good things we do can make us righteous and send us to heaven (Ephesians 2:8-9). It’s only through Jesus that we’re righteous (Romans 3:22; 4:5).

Since we’re in Christ, we can and should be confident on judgment day. The only people who should be afraid are people who rejected Jesus as Lord all their lives. So, don’t look at judgment day as this big scary event, wondering if you’re going to hell or not. Be confident and know because of the sacrifice of Jesus and our acceptance of that sacrifice, we have no reason to fear.

Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.

They say, good things come to those who wait. That’s only partially true. Waiting alone doesn’t allow good things to come. It’s what we do while we wait that allows the good things to come.

For believers, while we wait, we maintain our belief for those good things. Circumstances will attempt to cause us to doubt that those good things will happen. But if we maintain our belief in God’s word for those good things, they will come to pass.

Another thing we can do while we wait is make positive confessions that align with God’s word. Our words have power to bring things to pass, so confessions while we wait is highly beneficial.

Finally, while we wait, we can be a blessing to others. Being a blessing is a seed. The seeds we sow towards others can provide a harvest for our good thing.

Waiting is not enough. What we do while we wait gives us the advantage towards our good things.