Our LORD!

I started reading Revelation today, and to be honest I was of the mind that I wouldn't really be able to understand it enough to write about it on my blog. However, my God is a great God and He speaks to me no matter what. How dare I think that God wouldn't reveal what He would want to say to me. This came to me as I read the very first verses of chapter 1 it says, 
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,  and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Wow, Jesus was there from the very beginning. I know this is such an obvious point to make, but it is a valid one. He is Lord and with that in mind we need to realise that He's been there, seen it, done it etc... He knows everything there is to know about us. He knows the good and the not so good. He knows when we are awake and asleep. He knows when we are listening to His guidance and when we are doing our own thing and ignoring Him. He knows when we say things about others that are not Holy as well as when we encourage one another in the Lord. Let's face it I could go on with this train of thought, but let's look at this from a Kingdom perspective. Jesus is LORD - THERE IS NOTHING HE DOESN'T KNOW OR SEE! We cannot hide from Him. There is good news in all of this though. Jesus loves us so much that He stretched His arms out wide to show us how much we mean to Him. He paid the ultimate price for our sin and shame and it costs us nothing. He did much so that we can do so little. Trust in Him today - He is our only hope, our redeemer, our LORD.

Hey Jude!

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life
Jude is only one chapter long, although in this chapter he encourages us to keep going. He wants us to persevere. In these few verses Jude is telling us to build our faith up. To continue praying in the Spirit. In a nutshell he's telling us to make sure that we are close to God.
I know this is obvious, but we do need to make sure that we are close to God. Without His guidance we can do nothing. We'll keep going for a while, but nothing will come of it as we need His Strength to help us to get through. 
I know from personal experience that when I work in my own strength, things don't go to plan. The difference happens when I rely on God, when I tune into His frequency, then amazing things happen not only in my life but in the lives of others.
It may be that you are struggling with something. Hand it over to God and allow Him to work through that situation. We need to keep going, we need to make sure that we totally rely on God, we need to go through the hard times with our heads held up high, because we are sons and daughters of the Living God. Let's persevere and contend for our faith today, making sure that we rely on the one who is above all others - Jesus.

Great Job!

In 3 John we find John encouraging his friend. He writes a letter to encourage Gaius in everything he does. He commends him for what he has done and what he is doing in the name of the Lord.How often do we encourage one another? When was the last time that you said to someone else, "I think you are doing an amazing job for the Lord"
I know that when people say things like this to me it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. However, I think that is wrong attitude to have. The people that say this to me are just trying to encourage me, and motivate me in the work of the Lord.
We should do this more often. We need to raise one another up. We need to motivate and encourage one another in the gifts that God has given us. Let's try and honour one another, let's try and make someone feel loved and respected. We are all in this together, and without the support from the people around us it becomes really difficult - so lets make sure that we make things easier for our Christian brothers and sisters and encourage them today.

Jesus loves Kids 2

I am currently at a Children's leaders conference, and on reading today's scripture it has really encouraged me. In 2 John it starts with this verse, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. It then continues in verse 4 with these words, It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.WOW! Do you realise what this means? Children are allowed to follow Jesus! Children are allowed to know the truth! 
This is not a revelation to me, as I work as a children's worker and my prime goal is getting boys and girls to  know Jesus. Unfortunately there are Christians that don't see children as important. They see children's church or Sunday School as a baby sitting service that happens while the REAL worship in the adult church goes on. 
I guess I'm now officially on my soap box! I love the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind, and so why would I not want the same for the children? Adults claim to love the Lord, to want to serve the Lord, to want to do the will of the Lord, but yet they don't read the bible to their children, they don't even buy a bible for their children, they don't pray with their children. How can we make sure that our children are walking in the truth  if we are not doing everything in our power to guide them in the way of Jesus?

Come on people! I know that this is my job to tell children about Jesus, but it has to begin with the family. Our Kids deserve to know the fullness of Christ for themselves, let's show them, let's grow them, let's do everything we can to give them the best Spiritual home we can - never mind playing games or sports, which I would like to say are fine - but instead let's encourage our children and young people that God comes first - even if it means that they don't play sport with their friends on a Sunday. They may be the only Christian on the team, but where and when are they getting fed if they are not in Church? If we give them an excuse now then what will happen when they are older? They'll find other excuses like, I don't have any friends in church, I have homework to do, I'm too tired! What is that? We need to make sure that our Children and Young people are encouraged to fellowship with God and with like minded people.
Come on church let's be like this lady in 2 John. Let's do our best to bring our children and young people into the Kingdom of God.

1 prayer - thats all it takes

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. What a great way to end 1 John. In chapter 5 John encourages us that if we believe that Jesus is Lord then we will have eternal life. He then concludes this chapter with these verses. We can have confidence going to God that He will hear our prayers.
Our Heavenly Father is interested in our prayers, He wants us to come to Him with our hearts desire. This is not that we go and start making 'wish list' prayers, but it does mean that He will instill into us the desires of our hearts so that His will will become real to us, so that we will want to be all that we can be for Him.
Our God loves us so much that He paid the price for our sin and then allows us to come before His throne with our prayers and petitions. If Jesus didn't do anything for us ever again, answer any prayer, or even listen to our prayers then He still has done everything for us. He died for us to live - job done. He doesn't need to do anything else, however, Praise God that He chooses to listen and answer. He wants to be part of our lives - invite Him today. He's only one prayer away!

Jesus is Lord!

I thought I'd start with this scripture from 1 John 4: the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world I can honestly say at this moment in time my heart leapt when I read this. We all go through times of trial and of doubt, and to be honest it's like that for me at the moment. I don't doubt God and I know that He is speaking to me so clearly at the moment, but I know that I really needed to read this tonight to help confirm what He has already been saying to me.
I guess the reason for my struggle is others. When you know that you know that God has spoken to you, and then others challenge you about what you believe God has given you, you begin to doubt yourself. This verse really helped me tonight to sort my thoughts. I know when my God speaks to me and so when others challenge what He's said it doesn't make it less valid.
Jesus lives in me. The Holy Spirit guides me, and so I will hold onto this verse today knowing that God is at work, and that He will bring His will into being. I praise God tonight that He will bring forth His plan and purpose for my life. I praise God tonight that I can say that Jesus is Lord of my life and that He will enable me to overcome any challenge in my life at this point or in the future. 
If you are reading this tonight and are struggling with anything or anyone. Be Blessed and know that Jesus is Lord, and that no matter what happens He is with you and remember - the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world

Actions speak louder than words

1 John 3 says this, Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
How often do we pay lip service to God? How often do we tell someone we care, but our actions don't show that? When we tell others how we feel about them its great, but we need to show them with the things we do. It's so easy for us to say something and do something else, but as Christians our actions should show others Jesus.

If we are proclaiming to be Christians but then treating others in a manner less than Christian, how is that going to witness the love of Christ into their lives. We need to be talking the talk and walking the walk if we want to see others come to know the Lord and so enter the Kingdom.
Jesus was the same all the time, in fact it says in Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  He loved everyone the same, always behaved as He should, so that's what we need to be doing. We need to imitate Jesus in such a way that we show His light to the people we meet. We need to show others Jesus, not just by the way we talk but by the way we love one another and by the way we love them. Let's make sure that our actions speak just as loud as our words.

Who do you serve?

Once again John doesn't hold back. In 1 John 2 he comes out fighting, telling us that we cannot love the world and love God.Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever
This advice from John is something that is still very important, in fact I think this is more relevant for today than it has ever been. We live in a world that is forever trying to keep up with the Joneses. We go through life wanting what others have, living the celebrity lifestyle, needing the newest gadget, having the perfect job and so on. This means that God is squeezed out of the equation. We are so busy chasing the things of the world that we miss the point completely. This world and everything in it is temporary. We have a God that has prepared a place for us with Him that is far superior to this earthly place. Although we forget about that and lust after the things of this world.In this passage John warns us of this, he advises us to look to our heavenly future and forget about the current desires. 
If we want after the things of this world, eventually they will become our master. I know personally that I only have and want one master and His name is Jesus. Let's make sure that we serve the living Lord and not the things of the world. Who do you serve?

Light or dark?

I began reading 1 John today. What a great first chapter. John doesn't mince his words does he? He starts as he means to go on. 
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin
In these few verses, John is telling us that if we call ourselves Christians but don't live in harmony with one another then we are not living in the truth. Basically we can't have fellowship with God if we choose to hate our brother. We cannot have our feet in two camps. When we do, we are in fact living a double life, we are living a lie. To be a Christian we are Christ followers - 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Christianity is not something that we are on a Sunday. We can't choose to stop being a Christian just because someone has offended us, or upset us. We have to move on and forgive them.
Let's remember what John tells us, if we walk in the light, as his is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.We need to make sure we walk in the light. Don't live a lie, live for Christ, following Christ and making sure that our feet are firmly in the right camp.

The Universe obeys - do we?

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyedThese two verses are found in the final chapter of 2 Peter. The creation of the world has always been a great interest to me. I guess that is why these two verses jumped out today as I was reading.
Peter says that by God's word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. I think this is amazing. My God created the world with the command of his words. If you look back in Genesis chapter 1 it says, And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God spoke the words and it came to pass. That is how powerful, how awesome, how amazing my God is. I love the story of how God created the world. It gives me such a thrill to know that in 6 days, God made everything and it was perfect. He didn't miss anything out, it was perfect in every way, and it was made with the Power of His word.
Let's look at this a little closer for a miniute. If God can create a universe with His word, then surly we can rely on the fact that when He promises something then that word is final. Jesus promises to be with us and never leave us - that is final. Jesus says that we will do miracles greater than His - once again a promise from God. Jesus also said that if we have the faith of a mustard seed that we can make a mountain move - Jesus doesn't change. We need to remember that the one we trust in is the Creator of the Universe. He created all things through the Power of His spoken word. When God speaks - the Universe obeys. What about you and me? Do we?

God's way

2 Peter 2 is a difficult chapter to swallow. It speaks of false teachers and of how God will punish them for leading people astray. This is so important for us today. We need to make sure that we are not being led by others, but only by the Holy Spirit. We need to make sure that we test everything so that when others tell us things we don't just accept it, we check it out with God. 
We also need to be careful what we say to others. We need to build one another up, we need to encourage one another. We need to make sure that we don't teach others things that are not scriptural. 
I teach children about Jesus. It is so important that I teach them only the things of God. I have to be careful to speak the truth as I will be judged on what I say to them. Likewise, those who tell others things that are not Godly and scriptural will be judged on what they say also. Let's make sure that we only speak what God would want us to, let's make sure that we don't listen to others and ensure we only follow God's way.
 

Called by God

In the first chapter of 2 Peter, Peter says something that I found really interesting. It's not something that I would've said was the key to the chapter but it has made me think. It's verses 10-11 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
I believe that we all have a calling on our lives, not necessarily the same calling, but nevertheless a calling. Some are called to preach, some to teach, some to pastor etc...In these verses Peter tells us to make every effort to confirm our calling. We need to know what God has called us to do. In the great commission, Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of ALL men, however He doesn't tell us in what capacity at that point. 

The other day I was speaking with someone about the fact that God gives us the desires of our heart. My friend went on to say that this doesn't necessarily mean that He gives us what we want. What it does mean though it that He gives us HIS desires for us in our hearts, and so that means that our desires originally come from Him. They are birthed in us through the power of God's Spirit.
If someone had told me 8 years ago when I became a Christian that I would be employed in full time ministry telling children in church and schools about Jesus, I can honestly say I wouldn't have believed it. I know that this is the desire of my heart, but at that point in my life it was not. God gave me the desire to tell others about Jesus, and now I love to do it. It is my calling, to tell those I meet about my Saviour. 
I wonder, what is your calling? Do you know yet? The exciting thing about not knowing what God has in store for you is the fact that He has got something amazing just for you to do up His sleeve ready to be birthed in you!
I know that God has called me to the lost whether children or adult, but the exciting thing is how He chooses to do it. Let's remember that God calls us into His ministry. It's scary at times, its strange at times, but I know one thing - I wouldn't change it for the world!

Don't worry!

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
God doesn't want us to have any worries, however in this verse Peter tells us to cast all of our worries on Him. What a great God we have, what an amazing God we serve.He loves us so much that He takes our worries on Himself. Who else would do that for us?

In our lives of rushing around, working, meetings, looking after loved ones etc... it is so easy to pick up and carry the worries of the world. We are so busy sometimes that we don't know which way is up.
I know that personally I've had that situation many times, where I've been so busy I've not known whether I'm coming or going. This is not great, God wants our best, but He doesn't want us to loose sight of what we are doing, He doesn't want us to become anxious about all the things that we have to do.
Let's cast our worries and anxiety on God today. He is an awesome God, He is more than able to help us through the tough times, He is more than able to help us when we are worried about something or someone. 

Lord my prayer today is that we are all full of you and not full of worry. Help us to cast our cares on the one who cares the most. Help us to trust in you and you alone. Bless those who are struggling with problems that seem impossible to get through, help those who are caring for loved ones to be strong in you. Help those who are struggling with work situations to just be all that you have called them to be. Help us to remember that we have freedom in you and not to be bound with worry because we are sons and daughters of the living God.


If you have a problem or a worry today. Cast your cares on Him. Talk to God and tell Him how you feel. He loves you and I promise He will help.

Fear not!

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?This question is found in 1 Peter 3. It is followed by, Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. We are born of the Spirit, we are guided by the Spirit, we are children of God. Why would we be afraid? Jesus has won the battle, He has conquered death.I know its easy to say to someone don't be afraid but to be honest, we really don't have anything to fear. 
I have always hated flying, and when I get on a plane I always pray first. I don't think its the thought of crashing, although I'm not keen on that, I think its the thought of being out of control and there being that distance between me and the floor that makes me afraid. However, I know that God is with me, and that He has my life in the palms of His hands, because of this knowledge the fear has no control, it has no power over me.
There is another way of looking at this too. When we are afraid we show that we are not trusting in God. Let's make sure we look fear straight in the eye and tell it to go away. Satan uses our fears to stop us from doing God's work, stop us from trusting in God. Satan is the father of ALL lies so we need to show him that we are the children of the living God and that we have nothing to fear.

I am Privileged!

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
What can I say about these two verses from 1 Peter chapter 2. What a privilege to know that we are chosen, we are priests, we are possessed by God Himself. We should feel so honoured by these verses, and yet so often we forget who we are in Christ. I can remember being in a service once and the preacher telling the congregation that we were in the top % of privileged people on the planet. We live in a relatively free speaking country; we as a nation are not classed as poverty stricken; many of us live in our own homes; the list is endless, however, the main reason that we are in this position of privilege is because we know Jesus.
I believe that Peter was trying to encourage the readers who they were in Christ, and in doing that he has done the same for us. We must believe these verses and hold onto the promise that without Jesus in our lives our lives would be meaningless.
I can't imagine my life without Jesus, I don't want to imagine my life without Jesus. What about you? Do you know Him? He's only a prayer away. If you are reading my blog today and don't know Jesus as Lord, just ask Him into your heart today. Ask Him to be your Lord and Saviour. You'll never regret it, and you too will become a privileged priest of the Living God.
Make a difference in your life today, so that you can make a difference in the life of someone else too.

Be Holy

1 Peter 1 talks about being Holy. To be Holy we have to be devout or in other words devoted. I believe that Peter is telling us to be devoted to God. We should devote every part of our lives to Him.
This might sound a bit extreme, but that is what being a Christian is about. Every part of our lives should be devoted to God. Everything whether small or large, God should be at the very centre.
We are called to have a relationship with God. That doesn't mean that we only talk to Him on a Sunday, it means that we need to spend time daily with Him. You can't have a relationship with someone if you don't spend time with them. This is the same with God. I have told the children I work with many times that to have a relationship with God means that we have to talk to Him, spend time with Him and share our whole lives with Him.
He gave His life for us, let's hand over our lives to Him and devote ourselves to living a life that is holy and pleasing to God. 

Powerful prayer

James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Do we believe this? As I read this today I questioned whether we actually believe this statement. So often in churches I've heard people pray, "If it's your will Lord" or  "If it's your will to heal Lord" What is that about? Jesus didn't pray like that - in fact He said "Be healed!" It says in the above mentioned verse that the prayer of a righteous person IS POWERFUL & EFFECTIVE! This means that we only have to pray and believe and God will do the rest. 
I am so sick of hearing wimpy prayers. People praying long winded prayers of nothing. It's about time we stood up and prayed powerful and action packed prayers. God doesn't call us to be wimps, He wants us to make a difference in the Spiritual realms - to do this we have to pray with conviction.
We need to make sure that when we pray we bring God's Kingdom into being on this earth. Let's pray with power and authority, Jesus did. Let's pray with confidence and ask the Lord to send His Holy Spirit in Power so that the people around us will come to know Him as Lord and Saviour today. That's what they did in Acts and look what happened there - And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

What do you desire?

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures
We all want different things in life. We all have dreams and goals that we want to achieve along our life path. BUT, are they just for our own pleasure or is God in the mix? Do we want things that are healthy and glorifying to God, or are we asking God for things that are just about us?It says in Psalm 37, Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart, But that doesn't mean that he will give us all the things that we want. God is not Santa, He's not there for our daily shopping list of wants. He wants to share our lives and give us good things. We have to remember that sometimes the things of life that we want are not the right things for us, and we can become selfish with our requests. 
Let's lay our lives before the Lord and ask Him to give us what He wants. After all, God will only give us good things, and He has a plan and a purpose for our lives.

Talk the talk

James chapter 3 - what a great chapter of scripture. James talks about the tongue and of how dangerous it is. He says, 'With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness'. This is so true of us all. We go to church and praise and worship our Lord and then we are harsh to one another, sometimes even hurting the other person so much that it destroys friendships.
We need to be so careful how we treat others. We need to make sure that we put our brains into gear before we open our mouths. 
In Matthew 5:16 it says, In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven
Let's make sure that we tame our tongues and praise our Father in heaven, whilst also letting our light shine before others so that we show those we meet that Jesus is our Lord.

Don't judge!

James continues his letter talking about favouritism. This is a great passage as he describes how we as Christians can favour those that are wealthy over those who are poor. 
We live in a world that judges a book by its cover, we live in a society where looks matter. However, I praise God that He doesn't do the same. He doesn't look at what we look like or what we have to determine whether or not He will love us, He loves us no matter what. 
One of my favourite passages of scripture talks about this matter. It says in 1 Samuel 16:9 - "People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
How awesome is our God that He looks at the kind of person we are and not what we have. We are so fickle as human beings, we don't look at people in the same way. It's more important what people do or look like and less important what kind of person they are.We need to follow the Lord's lead on this one. We need to make sure that we give everyone an equal chance to know the Lord. If we only tell those that we like about Jesus then we are limiting the gospel. Jesus tells us to make disciples of ALL men and so that means the ones that we don't like too. Let's make sure that we are not so arrogant to ignore someone that is different. We are called to help the lost - that means wealthy or poor, important or not, friend or foe. No matter what we MUST share the gospel of Jesus.

Just do it!

Today's passage of scripture is James 1. The verse that really struck me today said this, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says
It is so easy to listen to what God tells us, but not so easy to always do what He says. In church for example. We sit there week in week out and listen to various sermons, but how many of them do we actually do something about? We even go to the person speaking afterwards and tell them that what they said really was good, and that it spoke to us, but does it actually penetrate our lives, do we act upon what God has said? This is so important, we have to live it, as well as believe it. God's word has to change us or else we are just grass blowing in the wind. Jesus came so that we could be different, not so that we could warm pews. We are meant to be followers of Christ working out our faith, not people that believe but do nothing. We have to work out our faith and make sure that we obey God's word. Let's remember that next time we tell a preacher that they spoke well - let's make sure that we hear the word and then act upon it. Let's make sure we read the word and act upon it. Let's be a people of action and not just people that listen and nod.

Love one another

In the last chapter of Hebrews we are told to, Keep on loving each other as brothers. This is something that is very important. As Christians we are told to love one another, we are told to love our enemies, we are meant to live out the love of Jesus in all circumstances.
As human beings we are easily offended, and so we don't find it very easy to love one another as we should. 
Jesus loved His enemies, He even forgave the people that nailed Him to a cross. We are told in Ephesians 5 to, be imitators of God, and so this means that we too have to love those who hate us.
However in this chapter of Hebrews we are told to keep loving each other, this is talking about other Christians. Surely this should go without saying, but unfortunately it doesn't as even Christians don't always love one another, or have the grace to forgive one another. 
One of the biggest reasons for people leaving the church today is offence. Like I've already said, we are so easily offended, but then we take that offence and hold onto it. We need to get rid of this offence and get on with life. So many people choose to leave church because someone said something that upset them. The fact of the matter is this, no matter what others do or say to us, we need to show the same grace and love to them that Jesus shows to us. How can we ask our Lord and Saviour to forgive us when we can't love one another and forgive those that hurt us?
Let's try and not be offended, lets make the best of one another and just love one another in Christ. If you are struggling with unforgiveness, ask God to help you today to love those that don't love you.

Run the race

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
These two verses are taken from Hebrews 12. This is what we all need to do, this is what we all must do! As Christians we are running the race for the Lord. We must get rid of all of the sin in our lives, no matter how hard it is, it has to be done.
We are called to live lives of righteousness, and with that in mind we must get rid of anything that could be in our lives that would stop us from running that perfect race with Jesus. 
Let's be realistic here for a moment. I know that we can never be perfect, as Jesus is the only perfect one. However, we are called to do everything possible to live a life that is pleasing to God. That doesn't mean that we will never sin, but it does mean that we would not CHOOSE to sin. We all make mistakes, we all do things that are not God honouring, however, by fixing our eyes on Jesus as it says in these verses, we can run the race and live our lives in honour and glory to Him. Let's make sure that whatever we do gives Jesus the glory so that we can run the race and be the person that we are called to be. 

Got to have faith!

Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of the great men and women of faith in the bible. The writer makes a long list of the greats and shows how through their faith in God they become great. Many of the list even though we see them as mighty men and women of God, at the time they would have not realised how iconic they would become.

Many of these people didn't even see what God had promised to them but they still trusted in God that He would fulfil His will in their lives. 

Abraham for example, he was promise to be the father of many nations. He saw his wife have a son when they were very old, and so by the time that God's promise came through, Abraham would've been long gone.

Do we have the same kind of faith in God? Do we have the same kind of staying power? When things get tough do we trust that God is with us through thick and thin? 

God has made us many promises in the bible, but do we have the faith to hold onto those promises? 

I know personally, when things are tough its very hard to focus on the fact that God is in control.

In the very first verse of Hebrews 11 it says this, 

Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.

Let's praise God today that we have a hope in Him. That He will always be there for us and that He will never let us down. Let's raise our faith in Him today and know that He will continue the great work that He has started whether we see it or not.