Maturing In Faith

The past few weeks I’ve been studying the life of Peter. I wanted to write this post about him because throughout my study I realized he was an amazing example of someone who wanted so badly to be a mighty man of faith but stumbled multiples times, however, in the end God used him to do incredible things. We can all relate to Peter. Maturity takes time and devotion, we can’t expect it to happen overnight. We will fall short time and time again, but we must learn from our failures and instead of letting them discourage us, we must mature through them. Peter genuinely thought he was mature in his faith, he loved Jesus, and really thought that he was ready to give his life up for him. He was so confident in his faith, but Jesus knew his faith was not mature yet. How many times have you thought that you were making great progress in your walk with God and then you stumbled? If you’re like me, you can’t begin to count the amount of times you’ve felt like you have failed God. The amazing part of all of this is that Jesus forgave Peter, and he forgives us! Even after Peter’s betrayal, Jesus chose him out of all of the disciples, to lead His people back to Him. Jesus knew Peter loved Him, but because he was human and was not mature in his faith yet, he failed. Jesus did not give up on him though, and He hasn’t given up on you! You see, Christ knows the plans he has for us. He knows what we are capable of when we dedicate our lives to Him, maturing in our walk with Him daily. Don’t let your failures and weaknesses paralyze you. We give up because we let feelings of guilt and inadequacy overwhelm us. I think of the guilt Peter must have felt after he denied Jesus, the replaying of that moment in his head over and over, yet, he did not let his failures paralyze him, he kept going! He matured, over time, in his walk with Christ and dedicated the rest of his life to furthering the kingdom of God. Ask your loving God for forgiveness for your failures, dedicate your time to maturing in your faith, and ask him to use you like he used Peter! When we learn to love ourselves as a child of our almighty father, and we realize the love He has for us, we realize how important we are to Him! We start to see that even though we are deeply flawed, we are still capable of maturing in our faith and doing amazing things to bring glory to HIM! God can use you and your brokenness to do great things for His kingdom! No matter how broken or flawed you think you are, He still loves you in spite of it. He doesn’t care about what you did in the past, He cares about what you will do now!

Love Him The Way You Want To Be Loved..Without Restrictions.

Yesterday morning started out as most mornings do. Our bundles of energy stomped down the stairs, walked into our bedroom, stared at us, and yelled, “Is it time for breakfast yet?!” My husband and I let out a sigh and slowly hunched ourselves out of bed. As we were sitting at our breakfast table having cereal and coffee, we started discussing which Easter bible study plans we want to complete before next weekend. My husband was reading through a study he began in the Bible app titled “Love Like Jesus.” This bible study breaks down a very popular verse, 1 Corinthians 13. If you have ever been to a wedding then you have more than likely heard this verse! As we sat beside each other at our table, we started talking about the kind of love that God desires from us. How He wants each and every one of us to love him without restrictions, without obligation. He wants a selfless and genuine kind of love! He wants us to desire him! A lot of us have experienced loving someone and not feeling the same type of love in return. If you have experienced this, do you remember the way it made you feel? Did you pray and desire for that person to love you the same way you loved them? Did you feel defeated? No one ever wants to feel like they are forcing another person to love them, nor do they want to feel like someone is showing them love out of obligation or guilt. God doesn’t want that kind of love either. He wants his children to desire him the way He desires us, He wants us to be excited and joyous in our love for him! He wants a love WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS. Everyone wants to be loved out of desire, not obligation. God wants the same kind of love. Is your love for Him genuine and passionate? Or is your love for Him a love that has grown cold? If you feel like you need to fall back in love with God then start today!! Don’t put him on the back burner, show Him how important He is to you. Spending time with Him daily, praying to Him and studying His word will reconnect you with Him and bring back that passion that has grown cold. What will you do today, and each day forward, to show God how much He means to you?!

"With You I Am Well Pleased"

During the forty days that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor; IT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours." (Luke 4:6-7)

We often forget that the devil has been given authority over this Earth, which explains why people are capable of doing such evil things. The devils main goal as he roams the earth is to convince as many people as possible to follow him and stray from God. It's as if the devil is running for president and he is trying to get as many votes as he can, so that he will win and God will lose. 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.."

The wold we live in belongs to the devil, we need to remind ourselves of this fact so that we will not attach ourselves to wordly possessions, ideas, etc. We are all here fighting a spiritual battle, we must not allow the devil to win. We need to devote this fleeting time we have on Earth to leading as many people as possible to God's side. Let go of this world, devote your time to serving God and leading others to God. When God spoke to Jesus, after He was baptized, He said, "You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:22) When we get to Heaven wouldn't it be amazing to look around and see people there that YOU led to God?! How incredible it would be for God to look at you and say something like, "Thank you for devoting your time to leading my children back to me, with you I am well pleased."