We need to know the love of God and we need to have the fear of God.

Kids go through phases where they want everything they see. And as they grow up, they all of a sudden are saying, “I need this; I need that.”

In reality you may want a lot of things, but do you really need it?

In 2018, I made a year long commitment to not purchase any clothing for myself. And, I did it! It goes to show you how I have all the clothing I need in my closet. I didn’t need to buy anything and I wasn’t neglected or short of clothing.

How about God? Do you need Him? Do you look for God throughout your day? God wants us to desire Him; to really need Him to get us through our day.

Get to know God. Desire to have Him in your life. But also, respect who God is. God is not a jeanie that we make wishes to, on demand. We need God. We must have the fear, the reverence of God, in our lives to prosper.

Psalm 115:13 - “He will bless those who fear the Lord.”

Joy is both a promise and a command from God. Joy comes as we understand that God is in control. God reigns! And, because God reigns, we can rejoice.

I’m reminded of joy often when I watch my grandkids play - it blesses my heart to watch them laughing and thriving.

As a Christian, I choose to experience joy each day. I make it a point to find something or someone to smile about. God gives us a beautiful world to view and He gives us beautiful people to share life with.

Commit to see God’s beauty every day. Joy can be found in God and in His amazing creations.

Imagine what the world would be like if everyone sought out and found joy every day.

Joy is essential to the Christian life. Our joy is based on the goodness of God. Joy is also not optional in the Christian life, because the final weight falls on the almighty shoulders of God Himself.

Psalm 18:28 - “For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.”

Have you ever been selected from a group of people to be on a team or project?  Do you remember the feeling of importance and recognition? It’s an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.  You feel very special to be selected.

That same emotion can be found with God.  God chose me and I accepted His love for me.  My identity is in Christ alone.

He’s still choosing me each day to do His will.  I can rest in that.

What are you waiting on today?  To be Chosen? By whom?

God tells us to go, spread the word.  Go, don’t worry about how to do it or when.  God’s already made the plans.  God’s waiting on you.  If not you – He will choose someone else.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be on God’s team!

1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

I grew up the youngest of 8 kids and you can ask any of my siblings and they’ll tell you, ‘mom always knew best,’ in any situation.  By the time I came along, it became clear.  When mom said something or told me to do something, I should do it.  And, she did know best.  As long as we followed the rules and obeyed our parents, things went smoothly…… not!

There’s someone who knows best for EVERY situation, every trial, every decision, every path to take and every person to share life with.  God!

It’s hard to go through trials when we’re thinking, “this is the best path to take, or this is the right job to take, or I’ll just do this and our relationship will get better.” The problem with that is, we don’t know what’s best for us.  We think we do and we conjure up all these scenarios in our mind and when they don’t work out, we blame God.

I recently went through a season where I just knew this is how I wanted it to work out. I prayed and asked God to give me the desire of my heart.  Well, He came through, but not the way I wanted, but that’s okay.  His way actually turned out to be a whole lot better for me and my situation than I had originally wanted.

Quit trying to play God and think that your plans are better than God’s.  They never are.  He knew this would happen in this way before I was even a thought.

All I can say is, God is good, and His love for me is as deep as the deepest sea.  Let’s just say I’m feeling so blessed and loved right now.   

God knows best, always..

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a]for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Think about the above statement. If you are prayed up, confident of your identity in Christ, and sure of who is fighting your battles, fear doesn’t stand a chance of hanging around.

A lot of people will pray a prayer, asking Jesus to help them out of a situation, and then if the answer to that prayer doesn’t come, or is late in coming, they give up.  They stop praying.  Fear sets in.

Once you understand that fear, depression, even suicidal thoughts are all spiritual issues and you use this, along with the word of God, to stand against these evil forces, you are going to have success in your pursuit of wholeness.

It is inescapable that you will experience fear in your life; the question to ask is how to deal with it.
Have faith that God’s got this.  Once you put your trust in God, fear leaves.  Fear loses ground, it has no hold. 

When fear comes, and it will come, stand with God and watch Satan run.

James 4:7 – “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

We depend on the sun to give us light each day, and the moon’s glow to give us light at night. We depend on food and water to keep us alive each day.  But there’s one source that gives us life, a resource available that is never ending. God.

By keeping our eyes on God as our source, we will find that we’ll never lack anything.  On the other hand, if we depend on people to meet our needs, and we place our dependence on people as our source, this opens the door for anger and disappointment.

Let’s not dismiss the fact that God uses other people to help meet our needs.  Let’s keep our expectations on God to avoid unnecessary frustration, disappointment and anger with people.

We need to help each other and bear one another’s burdens, and we need to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, but we can only be a resource of the one Source – God.

2 Kings 4:6-7: – “When the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” And he said to her, “There is not one jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.  She came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go and sell the oil and pay what you owe. You and your sons can live on the rest.”

Whatever happened to writing letters to each other? They call it ‘snail mail’ these days. Why? Because it’s a slow form of communication? In this instant society we live in these days, we want to speak, make a statement, and immediately want a response back.

I’m sure if you asked most people of the current generation if they knew what a ‘pen pal’ was, they would look at you like you had a third eyeball. After the invention of ink for a quill pen and led for pencils, people wrote letters and the mail man delivered them. This was their social media, lol…

I can remember writing letters to my mom when I moved away and started a family. Yes, we could call each other and talk on the phone, but with the cost of a long distance phone call, that could become expensive. I can also remember the anticipation when I opened the mailbox and there was a letter from her. I would find a quiet place and read every word, slowly, meditating on her face and watching her in my mind write the letter.

What if we could get the same passion in anticipation of reading the Bible? After all, the Bible is God’s love letter to us.

The Bible is full of nourishment, spiritual food to keep us healthy. Take time to read it today.

What one change can you make to your normal morning or evening routine that will create time to read and meditate on God’s word?

Psalm 119:103 - “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Panic is a sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior.

Have you ever been at home or in a building, when all of a sudden, the fire alarm went off unexpectantly?  Did it make you jump in fear?  Could you feel every beat of your heart at that very minute?

There are many factors that could induce a panic attack, but the underlying issue is fear.  Panic is fear gone wild.  The Bible doesn’t specifically call these situations panic attacks, but it does describe what a panic attack feels like in Psalm 44:4-6 – “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.  Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.”

A key component in overcoming panic attacks is to normalize them.  Recognize that they are not life-threatening and that God is bigger than the fear.  If we let fear consume us and allow worry to set in, it’s inevitable that an attack will come.

Jesus also says in Matthew 10:28, “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

If you’re a Christian, been saved by God’s Son, then you know to trust in God when difficult things happen in life.  I can’t explain sometimes when I’m going through a challenging situation why I have a calmness within me. What I can explain is that I first go to God in prayer.  Give Him my burdens.  Allow Him to take away the fear.  And I don’t forget those times when they have passed.  I brag on God to others about how He got me through it. 

Remember everything ends.  This is a season of life.  God is good and His mercy and love endures forever.  He promises that!