God things

GOD THINGS

Things are going to get better. Things are going to turn around. God is going to provide. God is going to do something for you. Don’t give up. Don’t give in to fear. Stay in faith. Stay encouraged. I know that things can get very bad. Things might be very bad for you now but I also know that we have a God that is very good and He makes bad things good. He takes the bad situations that we have and turns them into something amazing. He is an expert at turning bad things into what I call “God things.” God things are blessings, miracles, breakthroughs and all the wonderful things from Heaven that the Lord pours into our lives. Today I want to encourage you to believe in God things. Believe that God is going to do something extraordinary for you and change your situation for the best. He has not said His final word. He has not given up on your situation. He is going to improve your situation and make it something out of this world. He is extremely good at doing that.

 The God who parted the seas will part your seas and make a way for you. He will put your troubles aside and let you walk on solid ground. He will open doors that you never knew existed. He is going to make things so much better that you are going to forget how bad things once were. God things are what you are entitled to, friend. God’s mercy and grace are for you. You are not going to stay in this state of sorrow, pain and suffering. Healing is coming. Peace is coming. Joy is coming. A new day is coming. Hope is here to stay even in the middle of your darkest moments. There is still Jesus. There is still the Lord. There are still God things. Expect God’s best. Expect God to give you rest. Expect God to do His thing and give you some powerful God things.

God things are things that change everything around. They are great and mighty deeds from God. They are the things that we dream of and that we long for. Know that they are not just dreams. God can do exceedingly more than we hope for and what He does is real. What He does is available for you today. Miracles are not things of the past. Breakthroughs are not just for other people. Blessings are part of your inheritance in Christ. Add faith in God things to your belief system. Trust and believe that God is always for you, with you and that His hand is at work in your life. Believe in miracles. You might wonder how you can do that. I like to read God’s miracles in the Bible and declare them over my life. 

I declare and say that God blesses me and that He performs miracles in my life daily. Make that confession. Make that declaration when you pray and throughout the day. Let yourself hear that you believe in God things. Let yourself hear that miracles are part of your life. Make those statements in faith. Say them loud and clear and keep saying them. Declare that God things are your things. Don’t dwell on the bad things in your life. There might be a lot of them but you have Jesus and He will give you His best. Say that Jesus gives you His best. The more you say it and hear it, the more faith you will have in God things. Let your words of faith be louder than the doubts in your mind. Speak God’s truth. Speak His miracles and see your faith grow and blessings will take place.

God is always good and He is always faithful. He loves seeing our faith and He loves hearing faith. We don’t express our faith in God things enough but you and I can change that today. It is what we say and trust that brings about the things of God in our lives. Let’s be on God’s page and stay on His page. Let’s stay on His Word and lift up the truth of His Word. Miracles are here and they are for you and me. You don’t have to believe what the enemy is doing in your life. He creates bad situations but the Lord is in your life to remove those bad things. Thank God for His breakthroughs, blessings and miracles. Thank God for His healing. 

Keep a gratitude attitude about God things. Stay thankful through it all. God will do something that will blow your mind. He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. He has the final say. He can do all things. Your next breakthrough is around the corner. Your blessings are waiting for you. There are many God things on the way. You have seen nothing yet. Praise the God of good things. Praise the Lord for His God things. You are highly blessed and highly favored and God things are your things. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Ephesians 3:20; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Romans 4:21

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Stay in peace

STAY IN PEACE

God’s peace is powerful. It is described as a peace that surpasses all understanding. It doesn’t make sense to us because it is above and beyond the peace of the world. It can take over our minds and give us a lot of serenity even in the middle of chaos and confusion. God’s peace doesn’t rely on how we feel and on what’s happening in our lives. It is not dictated by our circumstances. It dictates how we react to our circumstances. When we have God’s peace, we react to life with hope and calmness. We don’t panic. We don’t fret. We don’t get hysterical. We walk by faith and not by sight. Peace works very well with faith. Peace is a helper of faith as I like to call it. It helps us stay focused on the truth of the Lord and it helps us hold on to hope. My prayer for you today is that you know God’s peace and that you experience it every day. His peace is out of this world and it can change your world. It can change how you see your world. Pray for peace if you don’t have any. Claim God’s peace. It is yours. It belongs to you. God has provided His peace for you and you can receive it anytime.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”* Jesus left peace for us. It is an amazing gift. However, we ought to tap into it. The way we can do that is by first acknowledging that we are entitled to His peace. Other translations of this verse say “Peace I give to you.” He gives us peace. We have to be aware that we are on the receiving end. We are to welcome His peace and to embrace it. Every morning when I pray, I thank the Lord for His peace that surpasses my understanding. I claim it. I receive it. I love it. I have the Lord’s peace in me and it is my reality. It is a truth that will always be true and I have peace every day. My circumstances like to challenge the peace or to challenge my belief in that peace. When it happens, I declare even more that I have the peace of the Lord and I stand my ground. I stand on Jesus and on His promise. He promised me peace and He is not a liar. I stay in peace because I stay in faith and I stay close to the Lord. My daily interactions with Jesus keep me in peace. Friend, your daily interactions with the Lord will keep you in peace as well. Stay in peace as you stay close to the Lord.

Daily interactions with the Lord are so crucial. They fuel our Christian life. They give us what we need spiritually and more. They are the backbone of our faith and they are the daily manna from Heaven that we need. I talk to the Lord as often as I can and I listen to Him as often as I can. He talks to me a lot about not worrying and about His peace. He is extremely reassuring. His messages are all about hope, about making it and about having a peace that makes no sense. When we focus on Him and we meditate on His Word, His Spirit reminds us of who we are in Christ and what we should expect as believers. Peace is one of the daily expectations we should have. We have His peace in us and it keeps on flowing as we keep on flowing with the Holy Spirit. Prayers, worship, praise and thanksgiving all keep us close to the Lord and help us stay in peace. Sometimes I notice that my peace is not strong and it often happens when I have not spent enough time interacting with God. Friend, keep connecting with the Lord. Keep praising Him. Keep glorifying Him. Stay close to God and you will stay in peace. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you.

Suggested reading: John 14:27*; Philippians 4:6-7; 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Let Him reign

LET HIM REIGN

Sometimes when I am praying or I am in a praise session, I experience so much of the presence of the Lord that all I can do is bow down. It happened to me yesterday. I was in prayer and I felt directed to get on my knees and pray. As soon as I did that I started crying. I couldn’t help it. It was such a powerful experience. I thanked the Lord for His love and for His continued presence and I cried and cried. It is hard to express in words. It is hard to explain what happens  in those moments but it is very real and very powerful. It feels to me like a direct encounter with Heaven. Yesterday what touched me the most was what the Lord whispered to me during that prayer session. He said “Let the trumpets from Heaven be louder than your thoughts. Let the trumpets blow so that people can hear from Me. Let the trumpets blow and let them be louder than your fears, your doubts and your confusion. Let Me reign in you. Let Me reign in you.” That last statement got me crying even more. He is so good. He is so loving and He wants to reign in our lives. He wants total control. He wants total surrender. He wants His words to be our words. His truth to be our truth. His love to be our love. His blessings to be our blessings. His power to be our power. He wants us to wear His Gospel like a glove and keep it on all day long. No matter the season we ought to keep the glove of love, hope, peace, joy and faith. We should handle every matter of life with that glove and not take it off. I loved that image. It spoke volumes to me.

When I came out of this moment of encounter, I felt ready for the day and I felt blessed. We shouldn’t rely on our feelings but this feeling of a powerful visitation didn’t stop. It was just phenomenal. I took a few minutes to meditate on what had happened and like I said before what stood out the most was the Lord telling me to let Him reign in my life. He wants us all to be dependent on Him. He should be our number one source and resource. He should be why we live, why we love and why we keep going. He wants to reign in every part of our lives. He wants to be the dominant factor, the perfect equation and the answer to all our problems. What does it mean to let Him reign? It means that we have blind faith and we trust and believe that He is always in control. We trust and believe that He is in control even when bad things happen. Sometimes things look very bad and then we discover that it was a blessing in disguise. Sometimes things are very bad but then God gets all the glory when He gets us out of trouble. The Lord reigns. He is the King of Kings. However, we have free will and we should decide to let Him reign in our lives. Our faith lets Him reign. Our surrender lets Him reign. I want to be totally surrendered to Him and let Him have His way. He is not just the King of Kings in Heaven. He is the King in my heart and I am working on making it a daily reality.

When you let God reign in your life, you let love take over. It is a very strong love. He loves us so we can love others. His love shouldn’t be kept under a bushel. His love should be displayed as the bright light that it is. It should shine and it should touch people’s lives. It should keep people warm and attract people. When God’s love reigns, miracles can happen. Chains are broken. Hearts are mended. Hope is alive and forgiveness is a daily occurrence. This world needs love. This world needs Jesus and you and I can give Jesus to the world. You and I can let Him reign in our lives so that people are impacted by true and pure love. We can be vessels for the King. We can be messengers of peace. We can be spokespeople for love. We can be the healers, the helpers and the servants of the Lord that this world needs. Friend, let the Lord reign in your life. Give Him all of you. Let Him speak through you. Let Him walk through you. Let Him bless through you. Let Him help through you. Let Him heal through you. Surrender to His will every day. Put yourself last and put Him first. Put Him first and listen to what He has to say. He is good all the time. He is love all the time. He can bless you all the time and He can use you to be a blessing all the time. End the reign of terror in your life by surrendering to the One true King who reigns with love and power. Lift Him up and trust Him with all your heart. He wants to reign. Give Him free rein in your life. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Exodus 15:18; Matthew 22:37; Romans 6:12

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 278)

As hard as it seems to be right now, there is a solution and there is an answer to your prayers. Keep going and keep trusting God. Something good is coming!

You are welcome in God’s house. Make it your dwelling place. Stay there. Enjoy it and become familiar with every single room of blessings that are in His house of love!

Today’s pain doesn’t compare to tomorrow’s joy. God will give you a lot of joy and wipe away the tears. Keep trusting Him during the difficult times and He will give you joyful times!

A drop of God’s love in an ocean of hatred is all it takes to make things better. Pray for God’s love to contaminate the waves of hate and discrimination. Pray for love to prevail!

God is knocking on the door of your heart. He wants access to your spirit and He wants to fill your heart with His presence. Let Him in!

God will show up when you least expect it and He will keep on coming through. Expect Him to step into the situation. He will change everything around for the best!

Take the time to be with Jesus. Take the time to pray, praise and worship. Take the time to say thanks and to celebrate the life the Lord has given you. Take the time to be still and to know that He is God!

God thinks you are beautiful inside and out so let that truth resonate in your heart. Let it become your meditation as you learn to love yourself the way God loves you!

The Lord repeats Himself. He does wonders over and over again. He blesses us over and over again. Let’s praise Him for being a good repetitive God!

God can take your life and turn it into an eternal life of blessings, joy, triumph and victory in Jesus. Trust Him with your life!

Suggested reading: Psalm 150:6; 1 Corinthians 16:14; 1 John 3:18

Think outside the negative box

One thing  that never changes is that God is good all the time. Even when our lives are not good, He remains good and He is still God. We tend to see God differently when bad things happen. Negative events give God a negative image. That is the goal of the enemy. He aims at destroying God’s image and making Him look bad. He wants you and I to believe that God is powerless and He has no control of our lives. He wants us to put God in a box of disappointment and frustration. That box stays wide open and when the going gets tough, we focus on that box and we put all negative thoughts and feelings into it. Before we know it, we have a box of despair and we put God in there. We associate God with failure when in reality He never fails. I have seen that box many times. It is in my mind and I am learning to think outside that box and to not go near it. That mental box is very destructive and very damaging. It is the box of overthinking. A box that we are way too familiar with. It is almost an expectation. We expect to spend time in that mental box and sometimes it is even comforting. There is no comfort in negativity. Only chaos and confusion reign in negativity. God is always good, friend. He makes anything and everything good. When we bring Him into our situation and we trust Him, He makes things good again. Today I want to encourage you to think outside the negative box and to remember that God is always outside the box and He is always good.

I used to be an expert at spending time in the negative box. I lived there. I resided there. It was my habitation and it even became my refuge. I would shut down and spend time overthinking. I was so good at it that people around me couldn’t tell I was in that box. I knew how to smile when inside I was sad. That box was limited. It had limited space and it limited my thinking. I could only think within the walls of that negative box. The same negative thoughts kept coming. Problems were abundant in that box and no solution was in sight. I put God in that box. I put Him in the middle of my misery. I would think about how God had let me down and He appeared to be very small in that box. The enemy even made me think that God had abandoned me and I couldn’t rely on Him. Friend, we ought to renew our minds with the Word of truth. It is that Word that set me free. The Lord told me in His Word that He was greater than the enemy that lived in this world. He said that there was always hope and there was always God. He showed me that He lived in my heart, in my spirit and He was bigger than those negative thoughts. He did not belong in the box. He wasn’t the cause of my problems and He could certainly solve them. God is good all the time. God is good when life is bad. That statement helped me a lot. I took God out of that mental negative box and put Him on a pedestal. I thought outside the box and it saved me.

Today you might be deep in that box because of your circumstances. You might see no way out and you might have given up on God. God has not changed. He has not left you. He has not given up. He knows and trusts that nothing is impossible with Him. Join Him on that train of thought. Believe that He is the same yesterday, today and forever and rely on Him completely. Pray to Him and ask Him to guide you out of that box. You are blessed even in the middle of your mess like they say. God is with you. God is blessing you. God still loves you. God will help you. Think in terms of deliverance and freedom. That is where God is. He is the God of deliverance and freedom. He will get you out of that mess. Keep thinking about His miracle working power. Tell yourself that nothing is impossible to Him. Lift Him up and He will lift up the ban that has been put on your thinking. You will be able to think positively again and have hope and confidence. Think outside  the negative box and think in line with the Word of God. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Proverbs 17:22; Philippians 4:4-7; 2 Corinthians 10:5

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 277)

God’s righteousness is like the mighty mountains and His justice like the great deep. God’s love for you is bigger than anything that will ever come against you and He will make sure that His Justice prevails in your life!

God can give you peace in the middle of turmoil. He can give you joy in the middle of your mourning. He can give you hope in the middle of a dark night. God can give you blessings when you think you don’t deserve anything!

Fear not. God is your shield and your protector. He covers you and blesses you wherever you are! You have nothing to worry about!

Your faith in God will open doors that you thought were shut before you trusted God. Keep your faith strong and amazing blessings will unravel before you!

God blesses you! You are blessed and you are filled with grace. You are blessed and you are a blessing to others. You are blessed and you are a fountain of joy. You are blessed and you are highly favored.

God will wink at you and show you what He did in secret. Smile back and thank Him for working behind the scenes when you thought He was silent.

God sees how wonderfully and beautifully you were made. Ask Him to show you your beauty so you can yourself through the eyes of His love!

God can do anything anytime so trust Him all the time. Do not lean on your own understanding but rely on Him in all things!

You will have peace again. God is going to turn things around and you will be on top of the world again looking out on a sea of blessings. Stay encouraged!

Greater is the One who lives in you than the enemy that is in this world. You have power within you to make it in this world and it comes from God Himself. Stay encouraged!

Suggested reading:Psalm 34:4-5; Matthew 8:25-27; Luke 1:29-31

What I am learning about my mind

Thank God for His lessons and His teaching. I feel like these days I am learning a lot from the Lord. I am learning about myself and I am learning about Him and how He operates for lack of a better word. I have been getting lessons straight from the Bible. I have increased my Bible reading in the past few weeks and I am grateful for the revelation and all information I have received. One of the biggest things I am being taught is the power of the mind and the power of our words. I didn’t know anything about the mind as a young Christian. No one told me that what I thought about mattered. It is written in the Bible but those passages never stood out to me and were never taught to me. I knew about prayer and I knew about praise. For a long time the mind piece was missing from my spiritual life. Who would have thought that our minds could impact our spiritual lives? It makes a lot of sense now and it is something we have to deal with over and over again and we can’t ignore it. Sometimes everything is fine and we have nothing to worry about until the mind gets in the way and creates scenarios that hold no truth. That is what I have been dealing with and I know God is putting me to the test and He wants me to master the power of the mind. He wants you to master the power of the mind as well. We are all invited to deal with the mind and find peace with the topic. Our minds are powerhouses and we better make sure that they are powerhouses for the Lord and not for negativity. What we host in our minds should be scrutinized and looked at closely.

I have been in situations where I could praise the Lord with all my heart and pray like there is no tomorrow and all of a sudden I am hit by a negative flow of thoughts. I hold on to them and I go through them one by one allowing them to become more real to me and to take a life of their own. That is a dangerous process that many of us are familiar with. We don’t always take the time to think about what we think and we let negativity take control of the narrative of our lives. God tells us to renew our minds. We are to renew our minds with the Word of God and with the help of the Holy Spirit. Recently the Lord has emphasized the fact that my problem came from my mind. I had heard it before but it made a lot of sense when I heard it this time. He has been telling me to fight those thoughts and speak against them. Speaking against the enemy is something I refer to a lot in my messages because it does work. It does wonders. The other day I said out loud that I had nothing to worry about and that God was in control. I said it many times because my mind had been filled with the wrong thoughts and dealing with them took time and determination. I couldn’t give up and I couldn’t stop saying what God was saying about my situation. My problem was in my head. It was clear and it was what I needed to hear. Think about what you think, friend. Weed out the negative thoughts and keep weeding them. They can be relentless especially if they have turned into a powerhouse. They can be like castles that need to be torn down. The tearing down will take place when we are strong and determined to do it. We can’t be passive when it comes to our thoughts.

What helps a lot is creating positive powerhouses that take up a lot of space.  The best way to do it is to proactively feed our minds with the good Word of God. We need to feed our minds the truth. We need to fill our minds with encouragement, hope, peace, revelation from God and good news. The good news of the Gospel is wonderful. We can find great sermons and messages but nothing beats the one and one time with God. Time spent with Him in prayer, in Bible study and in praise is key. I know you have heard it all before but just like me, you need to hear it every day. It was important yesterday and it is still important today. This truth will never change. Create a powerhouse of positivity but listen to the right things. The right things are Christian music that focuses on Jesus and that exalts Him. Some Christian music is more about us than it is about the Lord and although it can sound beautiful, it doesn’t do much for our spiritual growth. There are so many words in the Bible that are great manna from Heaven and we can feed on those words. Find passages that speak to you and make them your mantra. You will build a powerhouse of hope in your mind if you diligently turn to those words, listen to them, speak them and apply them. I need to keep working on the powerhouse of positivity and hope. I am glad that I was made aware of that need and I hope this message helps you see what you need in your mind today. The problem often lies in your mind, friend. Think about what you think and make a change. Renew your mind with the hope and the power of God’s words. Don’t be passive when it comes to your thoughts. They affect your spirit and they affect the direction of your life. Think about it! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Proverbs 23:7; Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23

The fight against worry

When you are overwhelmed and overthinking has become a part of you, God has something to say about that. When fear whispers its predictions in your head, God has something to say about that. When all seems lost and hope is absent, God has something to say about that. When sleepless nights have become commonplace, God has something to say about that. When worry is your number one enemy and it keeps on attacking you, God has something to say about that. God says that you shouldn’t worry and you shouldn’t fear. You might have heard that God says not to worry about 365 times in the Bible. He means it. He knows it’s important and He knows we need to keep hearing it. God tells me all the time not to worry and to fear. He often says it before something bad is about to happen. He prepares me and He warns me. These warnings started being more evident in 2019 and they have been clear ever since. Our head tells us to panic. God says the opposite. Our bodies want us to shake and tremble with fear. God wants us to do the opposite. God is against all negative thoughts, all negative emotions and all negative feelings. God tells us that there is never a good reason to worry. If we focus on the bad things that are happening, we will always disagree with God and believe that we have the right to panic and to fear. However, the Bible teaches us that we should not walk by sight but walk by faith. Listening to God tell us not to fear is listening to faith. Putting it in action is walking by faith. God says not to worry and He has provided ways for us not to worry.

Now, it is crucial to keep in mind that God tells us not to worry all the time. He doesn’t have pockets of time when He indicates that we should worry. He doesn’t say not to worry when all is fine and worry when things get tough. He doesn’t change His tune. He doesn’t change His mind. We are not meant to be worriers. We were designed to be warriors of God. Warriors of the faith. Warriors who keep fighting against fear, doubt and worry. God has given us an armor to fight the good fight of faith. The Word of God declares, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”* What’s part of this armor? There is the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the readiness from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. There is a lot to unpack here and God has equipped us well but we tend to forget about this gear of faith. The belt of truth is amazing. We have the truth in the Word. Remember that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We have the belt of Jesus. He is our truth and He promised that the truth would set us free. He says the truth and He tells us we have no reason to worry. He is the reason why we can conquer worry and why there is always hope. He is our eternal hope so no matter how bad things are, we have the truth that reigns over all situations and He tells us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We can be strong through the power of His might relying on His everlasting truth.

Thanks to Jesus we have been made righteous and we know that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. Friend, if worry is attacking you, pray. Pray against it. Pray so you can resist it and to be strong against it. God will give you peace. You will walk in the shoes of the gospel of peace. I often declare the peace of the Lord. I declare it over the situations that worry me and God gives me peace that surpasses all understanding. His peace is phenomenal and it crushes all worries and fears. Speaking against worry is very effective. We have the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and we ought to speak the Word against all negativity. It works so beautifully. Speak the Word as often as you can, friend. Let your mind and your heart hear you speak the Word of hope and worry will have no power over you. I have found that the words of hope and encouragement in the Word are swords that destroy fear and that pierce worry in its core. The Lord tells us to resist the devil and he will flee. Let’s resist fear and worry with the armor of the Lord. Let’s do it consistently. Worry will lose its grip on us. There is always hope with Jesus. Jesus knows that no situation is hopeless and we should be aligned with His line of thinking. We can do this, friend. We are well-equipped and we have an amazing Father. Let’s not worry and let’s not fear. Let’s put all our hope in the Lord God almighty! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Ephesians 6:11*; Ephesians 6:14-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Your prayers are powerful and effective

The other morning when I was praying I kept hearing that I needed to read James 5:16. I knew I had read that verse before but I couldn’t remember what it said. I took a few minutes to read it. The first part of the verse is about confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other so we could heal. The Holy Spirit told me to focus on the second part. It reads, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” I meditated on that verse and I asked God for revelation on it. Prayer is something that I love doing and I can’t encourage you enough to pray. Yesterday I read a quote about prayer that hit home. It said that if you don’t feel like praying, you need to force yourself to pray because there is a force against you that is trying to stop you from praying. I believe that the enemy is against our prayers and so is our flesh. When we least feel like praying is when we should pray the most. Why? We were made righteous in the Lord and the Word of God tells us that the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. You see, the enemy doesn’t want the believers to know that. Our flesh doesn’t want us to know that. They will do whatever they can to convince us that our prayers are useless and ineffective. Today I want to set the record straight. Your prayers, friend, are powerful and effective so keep on praying. Don’t give up. You are the righteous prayer warrior that the Lord created and it is time you lived up to what you were meant to do. Pray. Pray every day. Pray knowing that you are heard. Pray knowing that your prayers are powerful. Pray knowing that your prayers are effective.

When you pray in the name of Jesus, things change. When you pray in the name of Jesus, doors open. When you pray in the name of Jesus, miracles take place. When you pray in the name of Jesus, Heaven collides with earth. When you pray in the name of Jesus, hope takes over. When you pray in the name of Jesus, the enemy takes a step back. When you pray in the name of Jesus, nothing seems impossible. When you pray in the name of Jesus, your eyes are open. When you pray in the name of Jesus, seas are being parted. Pray in the name of Jesus. Pray with authority. Pray with confidence. You are righteous thanks to Jesus and you need to remind yourself of that truth every day. Not in a bragging way but in an entitled way. You are entitled to the righteousness of God. Jesus made that possible. You were made righteous by the One who died for you. Praise Him for His righteousness. Praise Him for making you righteous. This means that in His name you can pray and you can expect everything I mentioned above. Do it as often as you can. Be persistent. Be relentless. Be confident in Him. Know what happens when you pray. Know how miracles can take place when you pray. You have the power that changes everything. That power is living in you. You have the Lord in you and greater is the Lord that lives in you than the devil that lives in this world.

You have the power of Jesus acting in your life and prayer will release it. There is so much miracle working power in your life that needs to come out. Your prayers are effective and powerful but they need to be said. Don’t stay on the sideline. Get in there and pray. Join the prayer warriors who are making a change in this world by spending time on their knees every day. Every day people need prayers. Every day you can be one of those people who prays for the world. Your powerful and effective prayers count. Every single one of your prayers count. The only prayers that don’t count are the ones that are never said. Your silent prayers count. They are powerful and effective. Your tears can be prayers and they count. They are powerful and effective. Your prayers in your head count. They are powerful and effective. The prayers that live in your heart count. They are powerful and effective. Pray without ceasing. Pray for anyone and everyone. Pray and give God the final say. Don’t let hopeless situations make you think that God doesn’t answer prayers. He does. He answers your prayers so get to it and don’t quit. You are a blessing to this world, friend. Pray for peace. Pray for miracles. Pray for healing. Pray for people’s needs. Your prayers are powerful and effective and they will bless people around you and they will bless you. Keep on praying! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Jeremiah 29:12-13; Matthew 21:22; James 5:16

Pursuing Jesus first

I recently wrote a nugget that says, “Don’t pursue people. Pursue Jesus and you will find all the right people. He has the best friends lined up for you. Trust Him!” I do believe that nugget was primarily addressed to me but many people can benefit from it. Pursuing Jesus with all our heart is something we should all do. We should never stop pursuing Him. We should never stop putting Him first. We should never lose the desire to know Him and to get to know His heart the best way we can. A pursuit is the action of following someone or something. We all pursue someone or something. Some of our pursuits are very focused and very detailed. Pursuing Jesus should be more focused and more detailed than any of the pursuits in our lives. Money, fame, a good life, promotion, peace and joy are things that we pursue to give a meaning to our lives and to have a better life. Jesus can give us a better life. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Pursuing Him is pursuing the best that life has to offer and more. Why? Because He is out of this world. He is the King of Heaven and as the King, He gives us blessings from Heaven. The peace that He gives is not like the peace that the world gives. His joy is extraordinary and it can be our strength. He wants to prosper us in all our ways. He gives us more than enough. He is the God of abundance. When we pursue Him, all our needs are met and there is always an overflow. We shouldn’t pursue Him for the gains but we should pursue Him for Him. He should be the center of our pursuit, the number one reason why we keep going. He died on the cross and gave us eternal life. Don’t we want to get to know the One who made the ultimate sacrifice better?

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”* Seeking the kingdom first is pursuing Jesus. It’s drawing closer to Him, getting to know Him and following His lead. I asked God to reveal how I could seek His kingdom better. The answer was Jesus. Jesus should be my pursuit and my goal. I do have a goal to know Him better and to connect with Him on a higher level. I want to be close to His heart and share His heart and His mind. I want to get a big revelation of Jesus so I can spread it around me and give people the love that they are looking for. I want to give Jesus to people. I am pursuing Him so that my heart desires to pursue His love and give it out to others. I need Jesus every day and all the time and my prayer is that I remain in Him and continue to develop my relationship with Him. God is loving and His love endures forever. Pursuing Jesus is pursuing a love that will never die. A love that the world has yet to discover. A love that can heal, that can mend, that can change everything for the best. Pursuing the love of the Lord is key.

There are people in our lives that have never heard of the true Jesus. People that know about religion and that reject its rigidity and its negative elements. Jesus is not a religious convention. He is not a man-made ritual. He is not an ensemble of principles of condemnation and judgment. He is love. He is love above all. He is perfect and holy and yet He loves and accepts all of us. There isn’t a person Jesus doesn’t love. Let that sink in. Let that marinate in your heart and think about what it means. When you pursue Jesus, you pursue a love that doesn’t judge and that embraces everyone. You pursue justice and peace. You pursue the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If you feel like the fruit in your life is very bitter and sour now and it doesn’t look like the fruit of the Spirit, ask the Lord to help you. You have the fruit. It might be buried under scars left by past events or under a lack of knowledge of the fruit. There could be other things blocking the fruit but you have it and you can pursue it. You can pursue Jesus and reap a harvest of His good fruit. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep focusing on His love. Get to know Him. Pursue Him with all your heart and everything else will be added unto you. Your needs will be met. You will have the right people in your life. You will walk in love and faith and you will lack nothing. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 27:8; Matthew 6:33*; Galatians 5:22-23