Running after what truly matters

God is so good all the time. I can’t believe I spent so many years ignoring Him and not pursuing Him. He is Someone we should all pursue. He is so willing and ready to hold us in His arms of love and to tell us that everything is going to be more than ok. All He wants us to do is trust Him. Yet we wander away from Him and we don’t follow Him. We don’t run after Him. At least sometimes we don’t run after Him first. We run after money, after wealth, after love, after fame and after success. If only we changed the order of our pursuit in life, we would get things right. Running after God is what we should prioritize. He is the One we should try to find and get to know better. He is more precious than gold. He is better than fame. He is kinder than the world. He is everything and everyone we will ever need. We don’t need to look any further. We should look to Him and run after Him. When my eyes are on Jesus and I can’t see anything else, my eyes are in the right place and my life falls into place. When I change my priorities and I look at the world for satisfaction and for peace, I get in trouble. Everything is out of order and chaos ensues. My question for you today is, are you running after what truly matters? Are you running after God or do you find the world more appealing?

This question is not meant to make you feel bad or to convict you in any way. It is a question I ask myself a lot. The answer is not always the right answer. When I find myself in a jam, I have to reevaluate my decisions, my choices and my priorities. Oftentimes I find a big unbalance and I need to tilt the scale on the other side. When I put the world and all its attractions on the side of the scale that is heavier, I realize that things need to change. I was never meant to pursue fortune and fame. I was never meant to love money and to love the appreciation of others. I was meant to worship the Lord. I was meant to seek His kingdom first. I was meant to be a vessel of His love. I was meant to spread His Word and to encourage and inspire others. I was meant to put God and others first. That is what I am supposed to run after. I am supposed to run after love, catch up to it and distribute it freely. My pursuit of love is a daily pursuit. My pursuit of Jesus is a daily pursuit. Running after Jesus is never in vain. Running after Jesus is a worthy pursuit that should never end. I am learning to get into my own race after Jesus. A race against no one else. I have my own race and I am going at my own pace. I am not comparing myself with others. I keep my eyes on what matters. I run after what matters and I go with the flow of the Holy Spirit.

Running after what matters is not easy. The world can be so seductive and appealing. It tries to make us think with our flesh and not with our spirit. The desire for riches and for success stems from the flesh. Anything that puts us first or that puts our ego on a pedestal, goes agains the pursuit of God’s love. We step outside of His will when we want to be number one and we want to overtake others. There are movements out there that promote self improvement with the idea that our well being should come before others’ well being. We do need to take care of ourselves and we can build ourselves up in the Lord but we should pursue loving others and helping them more. That is a great race for all of us. The race to showing as much love as we can. The race to being more like Jesus. The race to lifting God up and making sure people are taken care of and loved. We can run and run after all the wrong things and our soul and spirit will never be satisfied. We will find peace for a season and turmoil for a lifetime if we stay in the wrong race. Let’s run after the heart of God. Let’s try and discover what He wants us to do. We can find that out when we run after what truly matters. Let’s keep running after the One who saves the world. Let’s keep running after the One who is the truth, the way and the life! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 119:32; Matthew 6:33; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 246)

Every day with Jesus is a good day and every day is a day with Jesus. Remember that and find the good in every day because Jesus is with you all the way!

Give moments of your day to Jesus. Give minutes of your day to the Lord Almighty. Don’t keep the day all to yourself. Give some of it to Jesus and He will give you reasons to praise Him!

God’s promises remain the same all day long. They don’t decrease and they don’t increase. God is the same today, yesterday and forever. You have nothing to fear and you have nothing to worry about!

The Lord says “Focus on My supernatural and great things will become natural.”

When the enemy preys on your fear and insecurities, pray for strength and peace. Pray yourself back to faith by declaring that God in you is bigger than the enemy in the world.

There are good days ahead of you. God has planned them for you to make up for the suffering you have been through. Stay in faith. Things are about to change!

Trust the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your understanding. Lean on His love and His power and He will transform your heart!

God restores your soul. He repairs your feelings and He mends your emotions. He gives you peace and He gives you joy. Trust the God of restoration!

Don’t dwell on your problems. Meditate on the Word of God. His Word will show you a way through your problems!

Prepare for showers of blessings. The Lord is going bring the rain of breakthroughs into your life. A great season is ahead of you. Stay encouraged!

Suggested reading: Acts 17:24-28; 1 John 1:5; 2 Peter 3:9

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 223)

God is going to help you through this season. He is going to turn up the temperature of your blessings and make it rain in your desert. You are going to come out of this cold spell and enjoy the beautiful sun of the Son of Man. Stay encouraged!

Jesus will make your life a living Heaven when the enemy tries to make it a living hell. Trust Jesus. Side with Jesus. Stay in faith and enjoy the life that Jesus gives you now.

Rise above the trials, the bad breaks and the suffering. God will give you the strength to rise above anything so trust Him in everything!

Keep your bucket of hope full. Keep it overflowing with the power of faith. See what you have in Christ and don’t focus on what the world says you don’t have. You have Jesus! Your bucket runs over. You have more than enough! Praise God for that!

The Word of God is more than a manual about life. It is life. It gives life. It can fill your life with God’s life. It is the living Word of God almighty. Embrace the life that is in the Word. Embrace the Lord and you will have an amazing life!

Put down fear, worry and anxiety. Don’t put them on. Put them away by giving them to God. He will give you the garment of praise and the armor of faith. Put those on and you will be dressed for success!

Be mindful of where your head is living. Don’t let it dwell on the street of fear and overthinking. Keep your head on the path of hope and life. Be sure that your mind dwells in the house of the Lord and you will live in the best place there is!

When you walk with God you walk with love, peace, joy, hope, patience, triumph, victory and blessings. The enemy will do his best to sabotage your walk so remind him that you are walking with the cross that defeated him. Keep walking with God no matter what!

Good habits are hard to develop but when you meditate on the Word of God good habits become a mindset. Keep meditating on the Word and your mindset will become a lifestyle!

With God you have all you need. Your faith will show you that God always provides, nothing is lacking and you can always make it. God has it all. Let your faith give you access to it all!

Suggested reading: Mark 11:24; Ephesians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 5:7

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 206)

Don’t limit yourself in your head. With God there is more. Let His Word stretch your thinking and show you that there are no limits to what God can do for you!

Look around and see the beauty of the Lord. Look inside you and see the beauty of the Lord. Look inside your walk with God and see the beauty of the Lord. Wherever you look, you can see God. Keep your eyes of faith wide open!

When you praise God, all Heaven rejoices. When you praise God, all hell gets a beating. When you praise God, He shows up in your praises. When you praise God, the enemy gets annoyed. Praise God all the time. You will stay close to God.

God is on His own frequency and He invites you and me to join Him on the wavelength of hope. He desires that we don’t get trust the mixed signals of the world. We are always on His radar and He will give us all the peace and joy the world can’t give provide.

When you look on the screen of life, sometimes your life is a horror movie. Sometimes it’s a comedy. Sometimes it’s a drama. God brings His own reality into your life and that is what you should embrace. He will turn your horror into bliss and your drama into peace.

God has heard you. He heard you before you spoke and He is glad to see your faith. Keep trusting Him. A change is coming. Hope is not dead. Jesus is alive and well!

One thing you can be sure of is that God is still going to be God in 2022. His promises will remain the same. His power will be the same. His love for you will be the same. Expect God Almighty in 2022!

With God you have no reason to fear and no reason to worry but your mind will tell you otherwise. It will create stories where doubt is the protagonist. Reject the scenario of fear and replace it with God’s truth found in the Book of hope!

Anytime of the year God can restore your life. Anytime of the year God can give you a breakthrough. Anytime of the year God can do a miracle for you. Trust and believe God all year. He is with you all the time!

God’s wisdom is abundant. His wisdom is for everyone. Lean closer and you will hear Him speak into your mind and your spirit. He will give you the wisdom you need to navigate through the events of everyday life!

Suggested reading: Proverbs 2:6; Ephesians 5:15-16; James 1:5

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Sunday (Part 205)

God is doing something new today. His mercies are new every morning. Expect new things in your life. Expect God things in your life. He is going to replace the old with new blessings that don’t compare to your present suffering.

Don’t let yourself be pushed around by fear and anxiety. Push them around with faith and hope and kick them out of your system. God is stronger than fear.

The Lord is fully aware of your situation. He had seen it before it happened to you. He also knows how He is going to get you out of it and how the end is going to be perfect. Don’t lose hope. God knows how to help you!

Don’t let the world take over your world. Don’t let the world take over the Lord in you. Give God first place. Give God’s Word your undivided attention. Let the Lord in you be bigger than the world that is trying to dominate you.

God will put an end to this suffering. God will put an end to this pain. God will put an end to the lack and the losses. God will put an end to what is trying to end you. Stay strong in the Lord. Keep believing. God is going to do something great for you.

Jesus came to give you life and to give it to you abundantly. Thank Him for the abundance in your life. Thank Him before you see it. Thank Him because you know it belongs to you. Thank Him because He did it all for you. Jesus came to save you and your salvation is here and now.

There is nothing the Lord can’t do. There are no problems too big for Him. God can do the impossible. Remind yourself of the miracles that belong to you in the name of Jesus. Revive the hope in His name. Stay confident that the impossible is always possible with Him. Stay encouraged!

When you are sitting on the verge of a nervous breakdown, know that God is sitting there with you. He is comforting you and He is going to get you to the other side of this. Give Him your fears, your anxiety and your stress. He will remove them and give you a clean slate of peace and joy.

Know that this life with God is always about how much Jesus you put in it. How much Jesus you listen to. How much Jesus you trust. How much Jesus you speak into your life. How much Jesus you follow. Your life of victory is about how much Jesus you allow yourself to believe and to express!

There are always new beginnings with God. Today could be the start of a new chapter of your life. Trust God with your story. Believe that He has a very good plan for your life. Praise Him for new mercies and new beginnings!

Suggested reading: Exodus 34:6; 1 Chronicles 16:34; Mark 10:18

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Sunday (Part 204)

A prayer for others is never a waste of time. Pray for those you know. Pray for those you don’t know. Use your airtime with God to bless others. Pray without ceasing. Pray without limits!

Bad thoughts and bad memories are meant to be recycled. Give them to the Lord in prayer. Don’t hold on to them. Renew your mind with God’s help and your thoughts will remain positive!

Take praise breaks throughout the day. Take a moment to glorify the Lord and you will experience peace, joy and love throughout the day. Take those breaks and you will break the mental habit of negative thinking!

Through God you are more than a conqueror. Through God you are an overcomer. Through God you are going to make it. Through God you are going to win. Through God you are going to defeat the enemy. Through God you are going to get better. Through God you are blessed!

Jesus has time for you. He has all the time in the world. You don’t have to beg Him to listen to you. He is all ears and He loves hearing your voice so talk to Him with confidence. He is waiting for you!

Jesus, the maker of abundant life is with you. He gives you life without limits. He gives you hope, love, peace and joy galore. Embrace life in Jesus every day!

Don’t lose hope. God is going to do something great for you. Stay strong and be patient. You are not waiting in vain. Things are going to turn around for you. Praise God while you are waiting!

Walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Walk with love, peace, joy and hope and you will not walk by the flesh. Keep your heart full of the Spirit of God and you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh.

Fear and anxiety will come. They will always show up at your doorstep but don’t let them in. Don’t entertain them. Don’t listen to them. Don’t let them be comfortable in your house. Remind them that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Fear has no place in you!

You are going to make it through this tough time. You have the Lord on your side. Nothing is impossible with Him. Stay strong. Don’t give up. Great things are coming!

Suggested reading: Daniel 3:17-18; Psalm 42:11; 1 Corinthians 13:13

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 203)

God has blessings for you that are not on your radar. He has prepared things for you that are out of your sphere of your perception and anticipation. His blessings are out of range so think big.

Don’t be afraid of the night. Jesus is with you in your darkest moments. Talk to Him. Reach out to Him. Listen to Him. He is listening. He is talking. He is still holding you in the palm of His hand and He is still your light!

Develop a passion for Jesus. Let yourself fall in love with Him. Fall in love with His Word, with His ways, with His peace. Rejoice over Him. He rejoices over you!

God is in your corner. No matter who is against you. God is for you and He will protect you. Find refuge in His love and trust that He will never leave you nor forsake you!

Be a vessel of praise before you are a vessel of requests. Be a vessel of worship and not a vessel of worry. Be a vessel of love and empty yourself of every single drop of hate. Be a vessel of the Lord and pour Him into the world!

Renew your mind with the Word of God. Don’t buy into the lies. Don’t listen to the negativity. You are a child of God. You are blessed and you are more than a conqueror. That is what your mind should tell you. Listen to the voice of wisdom, the voice of the Lord!

The Word of God in you should be louder than the world in your head because greater is the Lord in you than the enemy that is in this world. You have victory in you. You have triumph in you. You have peace in you. You have love in you. You have Jesus in you and nothing is impossible to Him!

Faith is not just hoping. It’s believing when knowing. It’s knowing without any physical evidence and believing despite our feelings and emotions. Faith is trusting God no matter what and having the confidence that all will work for the best all the time!

With God, blessings always come. They might not come when you expect them but they come when you need them. Trust God for His amazing blessings and His perfect timing!

Love died on the cross and came back to life. Love won against death. Love conquered death. Love will always prevail. Jesus the King of love will always prevail. Believe in His love. Believe in Him. You will never be disappointed!

Suggested reading: 1 Corinthians 13:4-5; 1 Corinthians 16:14; 1 John 4:16

Jesus, I truly…

The other day I saw a big sign on a church that read “Jesus, I truly trust in You.” I love seeing this sign and I embrace its message. I trust in the Lord and I want everything in me to declare, “Jesus, I truly trust You.” However, there are times when everything in me is saying “Jesus I truly don’t know what to do” or “Jesus, I truly want to trust You but right now I am struggling.” I am human just like anyone else and with that comes doubt and fear at times. I am learning to overcome them and to delete them from my life. One thing I know for sure is that I can’t conquer them on my own. Every I have to say “Jesus, I truly need You.” I say it when I pray in the morning. I say it a few times during the day. I am dependent on Him. I am not good enough or strong enough to make it on my own. I need Him. I have to rely on Him. I can’t live without Him. It is very humbling when we confess that we are nothing without God. When I first started saying that during prayer time, my flesh didn’t like it. My flesh would tell me that I could do a lot on my own and I had to trust that I was strong enough. I was made strong outside of God in my life and I could turn to God once I had run out of energy of my own. The truth is that without Jesus I am nothing and with Him I am someone and that someone is an overcomer. “Jesus, I truly need You and trust You” is one of my mantras and I live by it. What do you tell Jesus on a daily basis? What comes after “Jesus, I truly..”?

I am inviting you today to spend time watching what you tell the Lord. Do you rely on Him wholeheartedly? Does your “Jesus, I truly..” declaration end with words of desperation, words of hope or words of doubt? I didn’t know for the longest time that my prayers and my actions were proclaiming “Jesus, I truly am lost.” I was lost even when I thought I had been found. I was lost in myself and I couldn’t see anyone in me. The Lord was in me and He tried to get my attention a few times but I was buried in my ego and I cared about myself more than I did about the Lord. “Jesus, I am truly ok on my own” was another unconscious declaration I made. Jesus should be the center of our lives which means we should be on the periphery looking in. We shouldn’t be on the center looking out and seeing Jesus as an option among other options. He is our best option. He should be our only option. We ought to remain in Him and let Him remain in us. Once we do, we will always declare that He is all we need and we will understand that total reliance on Him is crucial. We will echo what the sign on the church said and our trust in Him will be unshaken.

Staying full of the Lord and full of His Word is a powerful way to keep trusting Him and to have strong faith in Him. When the Word of God is a big part of our lives and we study it and meditate on it, our faith skyrockets. We have to be diligent and keep at it and it produces great fruit. What I loved about the sign on the church is that it was out in the open for everyone to see. It was bold and it was strong. I want my declaration of trust in the Lord to be bold and strong. I am letting it stand in the open so that every time the enemy walks by me he can’t help but see my bold declaration. The enemy is like a lion waiting to devour us so he is always around us doing drive by’s and walk by’s and he doesn’t ever get tired. Let’s be strong and never tired to say that we truly trust in the Lord. Let our faith be heard and our hope in the Lord be visible. Our actions can show how much we trust the Lord. Let’s be the children of God who adore Jesus and who depend on Him completely. Let’s brandish a spiritual banner that reads “Jesus, we truly trust You” no matter what is going on in our lives. Let’s stay in the Word and lift up the Lord. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Jeremiah 17:7-8; John 15:7; 1 John 4:16

God made you

God is a creator. God is an artist. Beauty is His final product. Love is the canvas that He uses to make amazing things. You are one of His creations and He used love to create you and He sees you as a beautiful final product. Now, think about how He looks at you. He looks at you with great joy and with great pleasure. He is glad He made you. He is glad you are alive. He was very pleased with you when He was extremely satisfied with His creation. He knows you are the way you were supposed to be. Why doubt and why deny His art? Why think that you should be different and you are not good enough? It is a normal way of thinking because in this world we have standards that are not God’s standards.

We think like the world and we see ourselves through the eyes of the world. We want to be like others. We compare ourselves. We believe that social media is the social norm. God is above all the selfies and all the body images that are so prevalent in this world. He made you in a way that is unique and He wants you to celebrate the person that you are. You have a personality and qualities that are from the Lord. There is a lot of good in you. There is a lot of love you. There is a lot of the world in you that is hiding the good and the love that come from the Lord. Find yourself in Jesus. Find who you are in the Lord. There is a lot of beauty in you that you might not see or that you are not aware of. Today I am here to tell you that God made you and He loves His creation. He loves you. He didn’t make a mistake when He made you. He sees the wonderful person that you are and He wants you to get on the same page. Learn who you are in Christ. Learn about the beautiful creation that is you!

“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”* This verse is part of Psalm 139. David wrote it and he thanked God for making him the way He is. David recognized that he was a masterpiece because of who made Him. He honored God by thanking Him for making Him. Honor God, friend. Thank Him for creating you. Celebrate the Maker for His beautiful art. You are His art. You are His creation. You are His love. He loves you. He adores you. We miss out on so much when we are not in tune with God the creator and we don’t take into consideration that He made us. There are things about ourselves that we won’t like. We can find faults with ourselves easily.

Let’s focus on the Lord in us. That is beautiful. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we can’t reject that part of us. We can ignore it but we shouldn’t. You were made fearfully and wonderfully. Your are wonderful. You are a wonderful work of the Lord. Stop criticizing the work of the Lord. Stop putting down what God made. Stop denying the Lord in you. Start thanking God for what He did. Start seeing the beauty. Start seeing God in you. It is what you should see. It is what you need to see. God is in you and you are a blessing and a blessed one. Someone out there is longing to see the Lord in you and if you don’t like yourself, you will not let that light shine. Your beauty, your light is what someone is looking for.

Praise God because you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God took the time to create you. He didn’t make someone that is not worthy of His love. You are a work of art that is loved by God. You deserve His love and you should open yourself to it. His love will carry you. His love will get you through anything. His love will allow you to be all you can be in Him. Pray that you receive revelation about who you are in Christ and embrace the one that God made. You have so much to be grateful for and you have so much to give.

Like I said earlier, you are a blessing. God made you a blessing. You are not a curse and you are not a nuisance. You are a wonderful person that makes other people’s lives better. Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t minimize the power of the person that you are. You are a person of God whose love can heal and help others. I am so glad that the Lord made you and I thank Him for you. Stay encouraged and remember that you are a unique person whose personality and traits are a blessing. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139:14*; Colossians 1:16

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 197)

God is sponsoring an event out of this world and it is coming to your life. He has a plan to prosper you and to bless you. He is preparing something amazing for you. Hang tight. Don’t lose hope. God is about to blow your mind with a miracle that surpasses all understanding!

Don’t look at people through the lens of their sins. Don’t focus on people shortcomings and faults. Just because you are saved doesn’t make you better than anyone else. God doesn’t love you more because you love Jesus. You love Jesus so you love people more. Let His love be your lens. Let His eyes of love impact your sight. Walk by love and not by sight!

God is your refuge. He is your safe place. He is your protection and your shield. You can also find shelter in Him. Stay in His house. Stay in His love. Declare Him as your Savior and your King. Rely on His faithfulness. He will always protect you!

With God you can find peace in the most unusual ways. His peace is not limited by the terms and conditions of the world. It is divine and it surpasses everything that you know. It doesn’t make sense and yet it is more real than your chaos and your confusion. Call on God for peace and you will be free from any mental torment.

Don’t give up on finding joy. You have the Lord and His joy is powerful. Joy is coming again. Joy is going to visit and stay when you stay focused on Jesus. His joy is going to be your strength. His joy is going to be your default setting. Stay in the Lord and you remain joyful!

Every time you struggle, remember that God has won your battle. Every time you fear, remember that God has taken care of everything on the cross. Every time you are in pain, remember that Jesus the Healer is still healing today. Every time you doubt, remember to pray and the Lord will open the eyes of your understanding.

This is not the end. God is not finished. He is working on something new and something great for you. Don’t believe the enemy’s lies. There is life beyond the lies. There is hope beyond the impossible. There is a breakthrough that will take your beyond your present circumstances! There is God for every trouble.

God’s goodness should be the focus of your day. Keep in mind that He is good all day and every day. He loves you and He wants you to have a good life. Trials and tribulations will come but they don’t nullify God’s goodness. God is good through it all and He will get you through it all. Praise Him for His goodness!

If only you could look at yourself the way God looks at you, you would be in love with His creation. You are His beloved creation. He made you fearfully and wonderfully unique. He loves spending time with you and He loves the sound of your voice and the sound of your heart. Adore Him, praise Him. He will always love you!

Let your tunnel vision be a vision of faith. Let faith be the train that get you through any tunnels of live. Keep looking ahead with the eyesight of faith. Don’t worry about what’s on your left and what’s on your right. Keep your eyes on the Lord who is taking you to an amazing place. Stay on the train of faith!

Suggested reading: Mark 11:24; Hebrews 11:1; Ephesians 3:16-17