Wake up every day being joyful.

God wants us to have joy in the midst of our ordinary, everyday life—even during worst days. 

I experienced many rough mornings before God showed me how to wake up every day being joyful. I finally figured out that before I get out of bed, my day should start by giving thanks to God for what He's done for me, and asking Him how I can be a blessing to other people. 

There are many times when I dread facing each day.  There are many mornings where I want to pull the covers over my head and cry because I am already stressed about my day.  

I get so wrapped up in worry about school, work, family or just life in general, that I miss the point. God has created a new day, and He wants me to enjoy it.  It finally became so clear to me what Psalm 118:24 was talking about.  “This is the day that the Lord has made, and I WILL rejoice.”  I have a feeling that whoever wrote that scripture was having a terrible day.  They probably didn’t want to get out of bed either, or maybe their life was a complete disaster-who knows.  However, that person made the decision that “I WILL rejoice.”  Then they got out of bed, and decided to thank the Lord; for He is good!

Before we get out of bed, we need to realize that today is going to be a good day!  This is the day that the Lord has made, and I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!  If making that choice was easy, then God wouldn’t get the glory.  We need His help to make that decision, and I know it’s hard, but with God, all things are possible. 

I have challenged myself to focus on the things that I am thankful for during the day.  I encourage you to do the same.  I always think of things that remind me that God is still in control.  Even if it’s the simple things like walking outside and feeling the gentle breeze that hits my face.  I do that when I am walking to class because I realize that it isn’t a windy day, but a reminder that God’s love surrounds me, and He is with me.

It’s time that we achieve the right attitude about our day.  Every single day is filled with all kinds of situations that could upset us. There are the days that we receive some disappointing news, or we find out that one of our close friends decided to hurt us. Maybe it’s the simple things like the person who decides to cut us off in traffic, or maybe you spilled food all over your clothes at work, and now you have a big stain.  Who knows what situation the day might bring; therefore, we need to choose to always be at peace, and understand that God is in control.

God doesn't necessarily create difficult situations for us, but He will use them to develop our character. This is the perfect opportunity to for us to be tested with temptation, and for more understanding on how to resist temptation- please read or re-read my “Resisting Temptation” blog.

It’s time to take our minds off ourselves and our circumstances, and put our focus on God and loving others.  We should embrace an attitude that will bring honor to Him.  Because no matter what happens during our lifetime, we can be sure that according to Romans 8:28, All things work together for good; for them that love God.   

Another thing I've learned is that we cannot count on someone else to make us happy. We must take responsibility for our own happiness.  People always set us up for disappointment, which is why we must rely on God for our strength.  

We can’t change the day, but we can change our attitude about the day.  

We shouldn’t feel discouraged about our circumstances.  We should always remember that God made us, and He loves us just the way we are. When troubles come our way, allow it to be an opportunity for great joy because God is allowing us to grow.  The best part about difficult circumstances is that in Psalm 118:7, God promises that we will not be alone because the Lord is for us, and He will help us. He will be with us every step of the way. He is our comforter.

I encourage you to spend time each morning focusing on the good things God has done in your life. Think about the difficulties that He's brought you through.  Think about the ways He's healed you and changed you, and how good it is to know that He cares for you. 

When we learn how to set our mind on God, He will give us supernatural strength to make it through the day.  He will also give us an abundant flow of peace and joy we need to survive.

Philippians 4:6-8 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, pure, lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Getting Comfortable with God

Most people find it difficult to carry on a conversation with God.  I think that people believe that we should pray a certain way for Him to answer. Then people realize that, “I can’t pray well enough for Him to hear me, so I won’t pray at all.”  As a result, we become so distant from God.
    

It’s time to get comfortable with God.  He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He isn’t asking us for formal, King James Version prayers.  We should talk to God just like we talk to anybody else; with respect of course.  I believe that God enjoys the simple prayers.  They are easier for Him to understand anyways. 

A few of my favorite everyday prayers are:

·          “Heavenly Father, I am a Sinner, and I need a Savior.  Jesus save me; forgive me.  Make me brand new; make me just like You.  Fill me with your spirit, so I can follow you for the rest of my life.  Thank you for your life, now you have mine.   In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

·          “God, I thank you that every day I have the opportunity to grow closer towards you. I pray that You will give me strength and protection to make it through this day.  I pray that You will put somebody in my path that needs You.  I now cast all my cares and worries over to You because greater is He that is in me than greater than he that is in the world. Thank You for sending Jesus to die for my sins.   I am forever grateful.”

·          “Heavenly Father, I am living in a lost and broken world.  There are things that I don’t understand, but It is undeniable that you sent Jesus for me.  I want You to take all of my life because it belongs to You, Lord.  I will continue to trust You in every situation, and I pray protection and healing over everybody who needs it today.  I pray that You will reveal yourself more to me today than You did yesterday.  Please give me strength, wisdom, and protection as I face difficult situations.  I am blessed, and I will rejoice in You- yesterday, today, and forever.” 

I also think that it is extremely important for me to set aside a special prayer time to pray for my husband.  Even though I have absolutely no idea who it is, God does.  I am always praying protection and wisdom over him.  I pray that in every decision that he makes, it is to glorify God.  I pray that the decisions that He is making right now won’t hurt me in the future.   I pray that He is growing closer and closer into God’s word every day.  I also pray for God be with Him in every tough decision that he faces. 

It’s the simple prayers that really matter.  Now my prayers are on my level, and God expects nothing more.  Praying is simple, and God knows our heart.  It isn’t the words that we say, but it is how our heart says them.   

We should know that He loves us, and He is going to love us no matter what the circumstance is.  We should fear the Lord, but we shouldn’t be afraid of Him.    

Spending time with God is the most important time of the day. We can’t afford to go a day without spending that quality time with the Lord.  God is just like a friend or a spouse.  The more time you spend with Him, the more you get to know Him.  It’s that simple.    

First Corinthians 8:6 says that God created us to live for Him. He’s given us the gift of life, and He wants us to enjoy it.  We can have a joyful, fulfilling life by living in close, personal relationship with God.  However, it is a must that you spend time with Him. 

We all have those friends that only contact us when they have an emergency.  They have no desire to be our friend, and they really want nothing to do with us, but in an emergency, they need our help.  We always think that that type of friend is just plan annoying; therefore, why do we treat God that way.  He finds it just as annoying as we do.   We can’t afford to just use God as a way out of an emergency.  He is way more than that.  Of course, He will help us out when troubled times come our way, but there is so much more to Him than having an “Emergency Only” relationship. 

We can spend as much time as we want with God. We have an open invitation to invite the Lord into our lives each day. We get to speak to Him personally, and we are blessed with the opportunity to read the bible that holds the answers to everything in life. 

The devil doesn't like that. That's why he works so hard to tell us that God doesn't want to be around us if we're not perfect. I've got a news flash: We aren't ever going to be perfect. That's why Jesus went to the cross for us! 

We can go to our heavenly Father as often as we like, and He will never get tired of us coming. Hebrews 4:16 says to come boldly to the throne of God.  That is where we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. 

James 4:7-8 says that we should humble ourselves before the Lord. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come close to God, and God will come close to you.  God longs to fellowship with us.  It’s time for us to enjoy everyday life by communicating with God, and understand the depth of what an awesome God we serve.  The Lord has made a home in our hearts for those who have accepted Him in their lives.  Now, all we have to do is enjoy the company. 

Experiencing a real relationship with God

When people think of religion, they usually think of rules, regulations, and obligations.  This is why “religion” is one of my most hated words.  It gives people that weird feeling because they think that if you’re religious, then you probably are too good for me.  Religion also puts us in bondage.  I’ll never understand the differences between Church of Christ, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, and any other types of Christian denominations.   I feel like they focus more on how each church is different, rather than focusing that we all believe the same thing.  Jesus is the Son of God, He died for our sins, and He rose from the dead.   We are all not just Christians, but we are Christ followers. 

Jesus didn’t die a horrible death to give us bondage.  He died to set us free.  He died, so that we could have an intimate relationship with God.   He didn’t die just to give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we’re forced to follow.  I believe that He wants us to follow certain guidelines, but His purpose is only to protect us from the consequences of sin. 

God is like a parent when it comes to sin.  When parents tell their children not to play in the street, it’s not because they don’t want them to have fun.  It’s simply because the parents don’t want to see their child get hurt.  Sin is the exact same way.  God only tells us not to do something because He loves us so much, and doesn’t want us to get hurt. 

When experiencing a real relationship with God through Christ, life gets pretty exciting.  He stirs up a passion inside of us to love people, and we realize that we don’t have to struggle to do the things that He calls us to do.  It just happens naturally. 

God wants everybody to know that He is not mad at us.  God loves you.  God loves me. He loved us yesterday.  He loves us today, and He will love us forever.  Now, He may not like everything that we do, but He will never stop loving us. 

God isn’t impressed by our works.  He only cares about our heart.  When our heart is right with God, then we automatically want and desire to do good things.  Doing good things isn’t so that God will love us more; it’s because He wants us to receive the joy and blessings that come along with doing good things. 

All God has ever wanted to hear from us is, “I love You, Lord.  Thank You for everything You’ve done in my life.  I want to do what’s right, so I desire for You to keep teaching me. I want to grow.”   

God wants us to learn how to receive His mercy.  Hebrews 4: 13-16 says that nothing in all creation is hidden from God.  Everything is exposed before His eyes, and we are accountable for our actions.  Jesus understands our weaknesses because he faced all of the same trials and tribulations that we have faced, yet he never sinned.   If we believe in Jesus, then our sins will be washed white as snow, and we will receive God’s mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.     

When becoming a Christ follower, God begins to change us into a brand new creation.  However, we shouldn’t make up religious rules to live by, nor should we do whatever we want because we know we’re going to heaven when we die.  Christianity is about living a vibrant, exciting life in Christ.  It goes hand in hand with developing a personal relationship with Him.  Jesus wants us to be in love with Him.

We need to realize what really matters.  It doesn’t matter what clothes we wear because God doesn’t anoint polyester over denim. I mean, we should want to look nice, but we shouldn’t be so focused on our outward appearance, and lose sight of our main goal, which is developing a close, personal relationship with God. 

 It doesn’t matter if we go to church every single week if we don’t practice what we’ve learned.  We can’t afford to be Sunday Warriors and Monday Whiners.  We could sit our butts flat in church, and it won’t save us. Church is a place of growing.  If we refuse to grow in Christ, and be a witness for Him, then we’re wasting our time.  If we go to church and sing "I Surrendering All", but never actually surrender all; then again, we’re wasting our time.   Matthew 16:25 says that if we try to live our lives according to our will, then we will lose it.    However, if we commit our lives to Christ, our lives will be saved.   

Matthew 16:26 changed my life.  “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul?”  We can’t afford to follow a lost and broken world because it seems natural to us.  It’s time to be weird in a God way. 

It’s time to surrender all, and develop a real relationship with God.  God wants to be involved in everything we do, and in every decision we make.  He wants us to have a fellowship with Him, which means communicating with Him throughout our day, just like we communicate with our friends and family every day.

Knowing that God loves us, and He knows that we love Him; we will become grateful for everything that He has done, and what He is doing in our lives.   It’s time to throw religion out the window, and experience all God has for us in this life by developing a real relationship. 

When God’s timing is taking too long...

Our desire is for good things to happen in our lives, but usually when we have that certain desire, we want it now and not later.   I’ve learned that it doesn’t always happen that way.  We experience many moments where we ask God, “When?”  However, we need to focus on trusting God that it WILL happen, instead of WHEN will it happen?   God puts those desires in our hearts for a reason, and He is not doing it to be mean.  He puts those desires in our hearts to prepare us for our future.

Waiting on God’s timing allows us to grow.  It builds patience, and we are challenged to just to trust God that it will happen.  In the mean time, we need to be joyful and have peace in our lives.  If we can’t be happy because God isn’t giving us what our heart desires at this very moment, then we aren’t trusting in Him.

I believe our biggest fear is that if this desire doesn’t happen, then we will not be satisfied with the outcome of our lives.  We don’t know the end results of our lives, but God showed me that He knows everything about our lives-past, present, and future.  He says in Romans 12:2 that if we don’t conform to this world, and we choose to follow Christ, then His will for us will be pleasing and perfect, needing nothing.  This verse tells us that if we put our trust in Him, all of our desires will be met.  We will need nothing.   

We can’t afford to be inpatient, frustrated, and disappointed.  When I become un-patient with God, He always directs me back to the story of Abraham and Sarah.  God had promised them a son, but they doubted Him.  Abram married Hagar, and she gave birth to their son, Ishmael. When Abram was 99 years old, God blessed Sarah and Abraham with the promised son, Isaac.  God had kept his promise, even though it took 99 years.  Now, we can only hope that our needs won’t take that long, or I think that I might just go crazy.  However, this story reminds us that God will remain faithful; it just takes time and patience. 

Usually the desires in our heart are something that will change our lives.  However, change is a process, and it will take time.  We need to understand that waiting for God’s timing is a given; therefore, how are we going to act during the waiting process?  We can be miserable, or we can become patient and enjoy the wait.  In order to do that, we need to allow God to help us in every situation, and allow him to help us develop patience.  Patience is very important to God, which is why it is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22.  Patience is only developed under trials because it is a growing process.  James 1:4 says that if we allow our patience to grow, then we will become fully developed, needing nothing.  We will become completely satisfied.

Our relationship with God involves change.  To know Him is to want and to know Him more.  Spending time with God allows us to become more mature, solid, and well-grounded.  We learn to trust in Him, and He allows us to see His faithfulness.  It’s time to stop trusting ourselves and our feelings, but place our trust in Him.  Timing plays an important part in learning to trust God because if He did everything we asked for immediately, we would never grow and develop.  We wouldn’t develop patience, and we would never experience all God has for us in this life. 

When it is time for our harvest season to come, the desires of our heart will begin to reveal themselves. Our dreams will become reality.  We will begin to see prosperity, favor, promotion, honor, and all kinds of good things come out in the open where they can be seen.  In harvest time is when we will hear from God more than we ever have before, and we will enjoy His presence more and more because we developed a trust in Him to prove His faithfulness. 

God’s timing is often a mystery.  He doesn’t do things on our timetable, yet His Word promises that He will not be late.  Habakkuk 2:3 says, “The vision is for a future time, and it will be fulfilled.  If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.  It will not be delayed.”

God causes things to happen at exactly the right time.  Our job is not to figure out when, but to make up your mind that you won't give up until you cross the finish line and are living in the radical, outrageous blessings of God! The more you trust Jesus, and keep your eyes focused on Him, the more life we'll have. Trusting God brings life. Believing brings rest and comfort, so stop trying to figure everything out, and let God be God in our life.

Resisting Temptation

Temptation leaves a door open for Satan to work through us in a non-glorified way.    We pray that God will use us to glorify Him, which is why resisting temptation is a must if we want to receive all God has for us in this life.  Praying that we won’t be tempted is impossible and a waste of time.  Jesus was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights, and was able to overcome every challenge set before him.  Because Jesus resisted temptation, according to Luke 4:13, Satan left Jesus.  “When the Devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.”   This scripture proves that Satan gets frustrated if we don’t give into temptation, and he will be waiting for a weak moment to attack us. 

Luke 4:13 proves reality for me.  We study the bible, walk in faith, walk in love, and we do our Christian duties, but if we have a weak moment…Satan is waiting.   Which is why it is so crucial for us to bring our “A” game every day of our lives,  and I know that can be a challenge as well. 

We then wonder why God allows temptation and hardship come into our lives, rather than delivering us from them.   James 1:13 reminds us that God never tempts us with evil, nor can he be tempted with evil, but evil comes into our lives through our weaknesses. 

Praying that God will deliver us from temptation is foolish. Paul never prayed that God would deliver him from temptation.  In Luke 22:40, Paul prayed that he would know God better, and have strength and a good temper, rather than wanting the problems to go away.  Pray that when temptation comes our way that we recognize it, and pray that we resist temptations.

Satan uses trials to push us to do things that strengthen us.  It’s in the areas that we are weak.  Pray for strength.  Paul doesn’t pray for problems to go away. You can’t change the problem, but you can change you.  I pray that God will change me, and use whatever it takes to do so.   This also doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want the situation to change, but you can’t change the situation, you can only change yourself.     

According to 1 Corinthians 10:13, God clearly reminds us that “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand.  When you are tempted, he will show you a way out. “He never lets more into our lives than we can handle, and he will be there to help us hand it.   This means that we need to learn that problems we are dealing with right now, God has a purpose and he knows that we CAN handle the situation.  

Resisting temptation allows us to grow.  Growing is painful, but praise God that we are growing.  James 1:2-12 says, “When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a change to grow.  So let it grow, for when you endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. 

God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.  Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.