Who is your focus on?

All too often we look to the lifestyle, actions and reactions of other people around us to justify and measure our level of Christianity or our stage of righteousness, we forget that all human beings are just that, humans; and as humans we are all capable of falling, of making mistakes (both big and small ones), none of us are perfect.  It is time that we realised that Jesus Christ is the only true measure of Christianity, He is our yardstick, the standard that each and every Christian should strive to live by and the best thing is that Christ cares for all those who trusts in Him and He will not ever lead us astray.

When our focus is on Christ rather than on other people we stand a much better chance of living a righteous life, no-one says it is going to be easy but Christ says that if we allow Him to captain our boat - not be co-captain like most of us have been doing – but rather to take full and total control of our lives then he will continually lead us in our ways and show us the right path to take every step of the way.

Have you compared yourself to others in the past, perhaps thinking “why should I worry about that, Miss A doesn’t seem to be worrying about it” or “I can’t do that, Mrs B would never in a million years do something like that, it’s unholy”.   Oftentimes the people we see and think are (a) some of the most pure Christians (b) the most unrighteous people we have ever come across are not actually what we think.  Remember, we as humans look on the outside of the person but Christ looks inwardly to our heart.  We do not have the capability of knowing what goes on in the heart of the people we come across and so it is not possible to know how righteous one person is from another.  As a result of this, why even try, why bother to worry yourself and compare yourself to another human being when you really do not know what they are REALLY like.  

Christ has shown us who He is, what He is like, throughout His 33 years of life especially the last 3 years He lived as an example of how we should be, how we should act, how we should react, how we should love God, our neighbours (even the stranger on the street) and ourselves.  Christ is the manual for our lives, and we are blessed to have that manual in written form (the BIBLE), and in spiritual form (the HOLY SPIRIT).  We really should not need to look to others, nor let others affect us adversely when living our lives for Christ. 

In all this I am not saying that it is wrong to listen to and heed godly advice, but whenever advice, or prophesy or word of knowledge is sent our way (even this article that you are reading now) we need to go back to God and seek His face concerning this and if the Holy Spirit and the word of God convicts you, then take heed of the word that came your way.  We have to be as sheep who follow their shepherd, Christ is our shepherd, so we need to remain constantly intone with Him so that when He speaks to us, we will be able to hear His voice and in so doing be able to put His direction into action in our lives.

Let us remember that Christ is the Chief Cornerstone, He was chosen by God to be the foundation of this world so that all that was built on top of this foundation would be stable and fit for purpose.  So long as Christ is your foundation, your focus, your armour, your go-to-guy you can never go far wrong.

Remain blessed

Mediate on; 1 Peter 2:6; Isaiah 28:16; Nahum 1:7; John 10:14; 1 Corin 8:3

Insecure in yourself?...Locate who you are in Christ and confidence follows

When we are insecure in ourselves, we tend to experience a lot of doubts about ourselves and others, we fear things, situations, feelings that otherwise we wouldn’t, we are not confident or certain in anything, we often demonstrate uneasiness or have feelings of anxiety…all in all, we don’t live as though we have a secure footing in this word.

It may sound like I’m being a little over the top but from experience I know that insecurity is a debilitating disease which if left unaddressed can cause crippling effects in our lives.  We often use coping mechanisms like humour, shyness or pretend-confidence to try and mask our insecurity but below the outer shell, our insecurities slowly but surely eat away at us.  It’s no easy ride living inside a shell, pretending to be something that we are not, constantly having to portray a persona that we think fits into the world we live in, so we need to find ways to keep insecurity from dominating our life.

To battle insecurity our greatest weapon is SECURITY and to obtain security we need to first look at THEOLOGY.  Surprised…you may very well be but theology allows us to identify who we are - now not the theology which says memorise some bible verses and repeat them 6 times every morning, but rather the theology which says know the bible verses so well that they are ingrained into your mind, heart and soul, believe in the verses wholeheartedly and begin to walk in them without an iota of doubt.  The theology which allows you to have a family relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ so that together we can all build each other up.  The theology which says you do not need to have a pastor pray for you before God hears you but rather the one that encourages and even insists upon you have a personal intimate relationship with God for yourself.

Our security comes from knowing who we are in Christ, believing that we are His children by His grace and mercy who were created for His glory and having faith that what God has pre-ordained prior to our conception will SURELY come to pass in our lives.

Do you know who you are in Christ?  Do you believe that you are a young lady who is searching for love, because no-one – not parents, friends, so called boy-friend – has every truly loved you, or do you believe that you are a daughter of God, who he promises to lead (2 Cor 6:18) and whom He loves with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3); do you believe you are worth nothing, just roaming around trying to make ends meet or do you believe you are an heir with Christ Jesus (Rom 8:17) and so your FATHER is the God who ALL the earth and its fullness belongs to (Psalm 24:1); do you believe you have done too much wrong for God to love and want to use you or do you believe that God wants to set you apart from this world for His glory (2 Cor 6:17) and sees you as part of a holy nation who He wants to use to show forth His glory (1 Pet 2:9). 

If you are God’s child, adopted through your repentance and acceptance and by God’s kindness and mercy then all the positives above refer to YOU.  If the positives confuse you and you still can’t believe it, I encourage you to start reading and meditating on the word of God, start having conversations with your Father (praying) and allowing the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide you; by doing this, you will begin to believe in what you are hearing and you will walk in confidence…that is security.

Meditate on: 2 Corinthians 6:17, Jeremiah 31:3, Romans 8:17, Psalm 24:1, 1 Peter 2:9

You were designed for Purpose – Your life counts

 

For the most part Christians have come to the realisation and accepted the fact that we were all designed for a purpose, however all too often I hear it being said (I might even have said it in the past myself) that I will fulfil my purpose when I get older, when I finish university, when I get married, when I become a mother.  No matter what stage we are at in our lives we are able to fulfil purpose, we just need to seek God’s face for what that purpose is at that moment in our life and walk according to the Spirit’s leading.

Throughout scripture we are told of many purposes that we as children of God have - to get closer to God, to do good works, declaring God’s greatness to all the earth, to praise and worship God etc but the common link that all these purposes seem to have is that we are designed to bring glory to God’s name (Isaiah 43:6-7) that surely means that right from birth we have a purpose, we of course don’t know this but nether-the-less the purpose is there.

Are you looking at yourself and thinking that you are nothing special, have no talent to speak of, have nothing to give to another human being?  Please don’t minimise your role in life, no matter which stage of your life you are at, God has placed something in you that will bring glory to His name and that will help another person.  It might just be your smile, your shoulder to cry on, your caring nature; what counts most is that you love God and others and that you are faithful to do the things that bring glory to God.

Through our gifts, talents and abilities God will be glorified through us when we use what He has blessed us with, this gift or talent is not just given to pastors, or gospel singers, or deliverance ministers, or those with large amounts of money it is given to us all.  When we use these gifts, others will notice and God who is glorified in it will reward us.  When we use our purpose as God intends us to we will flourish, find inner peace and joy.

When you seek God’s help in recognising and fulfilling your purpose that purpose is limitless, so long as we are willing to be used by God, He will continue to use us, the moment we decide not to be used He will not force us because He has given us a choice to chose His will or our own.

Have you prayed about your purpose; if not why not ask God to reveal it to you, you may be very surprised at how God opens your eyes and where He leads you.  If you have prayed and know your purpose in life are you using it as God intends, if not, please let us get back to the road that God has paved for us, don’t forget that someone’s life could be brighter because of YOUR purpose fulfilled.

Romans 8:19

For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God

Meditate on: Exodus 9:16, 2 Chronicles 15:7, Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 43:6-7, Roman 12:4-8

Born Again.........a Journey

In speaking to a friend over the last week, it came to my knowledge that she was very down because she was not able to cultivate a secure relationship with God; she has been a born again Christian for several years however admits to constantly slipping back into her old ways and finding it very difficult to find her way back to Christ.  She explained that she loved the times when she was able to freely talk to God, feel Him all around and in her but didn't understand why she so easily slipps and even though she was convicted in her spirit that she was on a wrong path she found it difficult to move or adjust and rather dwelt there still feeling guilty and depressed.

WOW my heart went out to this young lady, I realised that the enemy has so many tricks up his sleeves in order to keep us bound, to halt our journey to a purpose fulfilling life; we spoke at great length and this sister rededicated her life to God (glory to the Most High) and has now started again on this journey.

It is this journey I want to discuss with you today.  Being born again is not a destination but rather a journey that we all need to work pretty hard at if we are to get to the actual destination, which is Heaven.  The day that we receive salvation it's as though we received a new lease of life and some people go all out, think back to the weeks or months immediately after you gave you life to Christ, I bet you were on FIRE for God, I mean the kind of fire that people had to stand a great distance from in order not to get burnt ;-).  By God's grace I'm sure the fire is still going but if we are truthful with ourselves we will see that whilst we may not have slipped as far into luke-warmness as we could, our fire is not burning as bright as it once did!

When we become born again and we receive the gift of salvation, our journey begins, it is not the time for us to merely sit back and say “great I’m now saved, onward and upward for me”, we will remain as we were unless we work our salvation out.  Please don’t misunderstand me, salvation is a gift that God in His mercy grants to all who are willing and ready to confess Christ as their Lord and personal Saviour, however we now have to work out our salvation.  We cannot remain as we were once born again, at first we will be feed the word of God (as hopefully we have found a bible believing, spirit filled church home), after a while though we will need to start reading the word, speaking TO the word, hearing FROM the word ourselves, the WORD is Christ Jesus, basically we need to begin to cultivate a relationship with Christ for ourselves.  Its great that we have Christian friends and pastors, mentors etc who will help to explain things to us etc but the best teacher is Christ through His word and the Holy Spirit but if we don’t know Christ personally FOR OURSELVES we will not be able to speak to Him or hear FROM him. 

If we have been born again for a while and are still in the same place as we were that first day, we need to check ourselves.  Lets check ourselves by seeing how often we read, mediate and practise the word of God if not enough, lets dig deeper; by checking around us to see if we are in the same (perhaps) non-Christian crowd that we were in before we were born again; lets check the words that come out of our mouths and the thoughts that enter our heads, are we aware enough to put a stop to ungodly words or thoughts, aware enough to know which people we need to move away from until we are strong enough to influence them.

This journey is not an easy one, but it is doable and very worthwhile and so long as we strive to remain in God’s presence, follow His words and leadings of the Holy Spirit the destination is attainable.  Please never be so disheartened when you step of the path of righteousness that you think you are not worth enough for God to have saved you; it is not so, you are so worthwhile to God that He is ready and willing to leave the estimated 2 billion Christians in the world today just to find YOU at the times when you feel lost.  Don’t give up, keep pressing forward and always find time to talk to and hear from God…..He is always close be.

Meditate on: 1 John 4:10, Ephesians 1:7, Romans 5:1, Psalm 51:7, Isaiah 1:18, 1 John 1:7, Ephesians 2:10

You don’t need to dress provocatively to be beautiful

Hi ladies

Have you ever heard or said any of the following statements

“How I dress is my business, it shouldn’t concern others”

“If anyone doesn’t like the way I dress then they shouldn’t look at me”

“It’s not my fault a guy looks at me like that (lustfully); he needs to work out his own salvation”

“God looks at our heart anyway and not our dressing”

I’m not here to bash anyone but I want to bring some light and understanding to the subject of how we as ladies dress and the effect it has on others and how God feels about it.

1 Tim 2:9 “..women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control…”

Proverbs 7:10"And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtil of heart."

Luke 17:1-2 “Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for [her] to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around [her] neck than for [her] to cause [another] to sin."

Do we still believe that the way we dress isn't of importance to God; my darling sister, God cares about every inch of us, He called us the apple of His eye and He has inscribed our names in the palms of His hand, do you think He would do that if He didn’t care?

Do we still believe that how we dress doesn’t affect our brothers-in­-Christ or our brothers-in-the-world? When guys see something sexually stimulating (low-cut, short, exposed intimate flesh), their natural tendency is to lust after her and entertain thoughts of becoming sexual with her. It doesn't matter whether the guy is a Christian or not. Even godly guys can be visually tempted to lust. If we want to avoid causing our brothers to stumble and fall, we will dress modestly.

Our clothes say a lot about us whether we like to believe it or not; our clothes can say that we are professional, that we are artsy, that we are sophisticated (all sounding good so far?); but our clothes can also say we are easy and available to whoever wants, that we are not concerned about cleanliness, that we don’t care about our appearance (not so nice now right).

How in Prov 7:10 could we say someone was dressed as though she was a harlot? She could be a school teacher for all we know but quite simply if we are truthful to ourselves there are some items of clothing that we wear simply to draw attention to parts of our body.  If we don’t want men to ogle at our breasts or other ladies to look at our chest area with disdain then we shouldn’t wear tops so low cut that there is fear of our breasts falling out; if we don’t want a man to crash his car as we walk by then there is no need to wear our skirts so short that we need to match out underwear to the skirt, or our trousers so tight that we require the assistance of a friend in order to put them on……come on now ladies let’s be real with ourselves.  We often dress for others, rather than for our selves or to glorify God; it may be sub-conscious but in the back of our minds when we wake up in the morning and think of what to wear we also consider if others will think it to be nice.  There is not necessarily anything wrong with that but when our thoughts stray into the areas of will Mr so and so think what I am wearing is sexy, or is this low enough to grab his attention we need to be carefully.  Those of us reading (and even me that I am writing) we need to check ourselves too, Christians, yes, you and I do it too – it’s a slippery slope and before long if care is not taken we will start wearing the very clothes that a year ago we considered inappropriate.

When God made us, He made us wonderfully and beautifully, our clothes does not give us our beauty so let us not be too overly concerned with how Mr so and so feels as we sashay past him rather let us consider always is God pleased with my look today, will others look at me and see God in me, am I dressed as an ambassador of God, is my dressing glorifying His name.  Like I said I am not here to bash anyone, I just wanted us to look from another perspective.

Let us remember 1 Corin 6:19-20 which states that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us, we are not our own, for we were bought with a price so we need to glorify God in our body.

Please meditate on the scriptures above and Romans 12:1-2, Proverbs 31:1, Revelations 4:11

I may be down, but I am not out for Christ is with me

Hello ladies

I wanted to speak about something that a lot of us have been battling with.  Sometimes we stop and take a look at our lives, we feel as though we are not where we are meant to be, we are not happy, things are not going right, we lack in areas we shouldn't be lacking and we have abundance of things that we rather wouldn't have, thank you very much!  Life sometimes seems like a real upward struggle and at times we feel as though we are making that climb by ourselves and not getting anywhere quickly.  Over the last month or so I have been really feeling this way but I remembered a scripture that lifted me up and I wanted to share with you.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.

This scripture really encouraged me that no matter what is going on in my life, so long as I rely on, trust in God and walk according to His will, I will have the victory in the end therefore I should never give up.  You see, God has promised us, His children that He will not abandon us but rather that He would walk beside us ensuring that we go THROUGH our problems rather than DWELL there.  

I know that there are pressures untold that try and cripple us, physically, emotionally and spiritually but we need to remember that we have a great Saviour who promises that these pressures are only temporary, we need to keep our eyes focused on the bigger picture, what God has in store for us; and please don't think it is for only when we get to heaven, its not; in this world too, God has plans and a future, plans that are good and not evil to give each of us a future and a hope.  

Be lifted in your spirit, please do not think that your life will continue to remain the way it has been, there is nothing that is unfixable, it is God's intent that "the life of Jesus might also be made manifest in our lives" therefore we have to rise and shine, we are destined to fulfil purpose; God has deemed us worthy of joy and laughter; all I would say is let us bridle our tongues.  Sometimes we speak down about our circumstances, the enemy (satan) grasps this spoken word and runs riot with it in our lives, lets start proclaiming the good instead of the bad – I really believe and the Word of God says that positive declarations yields positive outcomes, lets walk in faith declaring God's promises over our lives, lets follow the leading of the word of God and the Holy Spirit and know that God's promises will come to pass in our lives.

Lastly, please don't struggle alone, speak with a trusted friend, family member or counsellor; allow them to assist you in prayers and encouraging words.  The enemy does not want us to rise up out of the pressures of this life so he will try and keep you from telling friends and family what is going on with you, please break through that barrier and seek assistance.  

Lastly, lastly ;-) don't forget to talk to GOD yourself, you can always count on Him, He is always thereto help, there is never a moment when He is not present, there is never a time He is unaware of our every thought and need, He will never leave nor forsake us. Let's remember that God is always faithful, and will always be faithful, each and every day.

Meditate on: Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 30:19, 1 John 5:14-15, Psalm 145:18-19, Hebrew 11:6

Walk tall, you're a daughter of God

Right this minute, I have a prayer deep in my heart for all the ladies (young or old) reading this blog; my prayer is that you will remember whose you are, knowing that you belong to The One who lives above and within, that He is waiting for you to find your way to Him so that you can feel His love which hinges not on any condition but rather is freely given.

Long ago before you were formed in your mother's womb, our Lord knew your worth, He made all things and deemed it good; He predestined you for a specific purpose, He has great plans for you to become and fulfill.  My dear sister you need to understand that you are part of God's great plan, seek His face, and ask Him what He wants you to do; walking outside God's plan for your life means walking aimlessly but He is ready to take your hand and lead you, just reach out and touch Him.

Ask anyone, this life on earth is not easy, there will be pitfalls, valleys and obstacles along the way; at times we lose our way and are blinded from the path that God wants us to see, I encourage you to remember always that no matter what you are not alone, call to God and he will take your hand and lead you on.

Walk tall, walk sure, walk steady because you are a daughter of God and as His child He will never leave nor forsake you; be strong and remember who you are, understand that you are part of the great master plan and God will guide you in order for that plan to be fulfilled, He's closer than you know, reach up He'll take your hand.

Not sure whether you are a daughter of God, or have you slipped and want to get back up, today is the day, just say these words with me:

"Heavenly Father, please forgive my sins.

I believe that Jesus lived, died and that you raised Him to life again

all because of the love You have for me.

Lord Jesus, I ask that You come into my heart today and be the Lord of my life.

Grant me the assurance of my salvation, which is Your Holy Spirit filling my heart as I child of God. Amen"

My sister that's it!  You are now a daughter of God, however in order to grow you need to find a bible believing, Holy Spirit filled church in your area to attend; please contact me if you don't know of one near you and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

Remember, you are a daughter of God, a daughter of destiny and you are worth more than you think.  God is saying to you today "my child, I love you; don't forget your great worth"

God bless you.

Meditate on: John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, Ephesians 2:4-8, Romans 5:8, Hebrews 13:5