Draw Close to God

James 4:1-10

4 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. ³ And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

⁴ You adulterers!^[a] Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. ⁵ What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?^{[b] 6} But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud
    but favors the humble.”

⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

I will be meditating on this this week and wanted to share with you!

Sweet Lady :)

Adpating equals peace and unity......

 Seeds for a Harvest of Peace and Unity

This post comes from Pastor Joel Osteen's wife, Victoria Osteen. Her website is http://www.victoriaosteen.com/. I think this came at perfect timing as I am currently reading, "The 5 Love Languages" By, Gary Chapman. It's a great book and I think it's a MUST read. All of our communications styles can need a lil bit of altering from time to time. This will allow us to adapt to the people around us to form the best relationships possible. Please enjoy this post.

March 30, 2012

Not long ago, Joel and I were visiting with some friends in California, and I began sharing a funny story about something that had happened to us during our travels. One of our friends started laughing and nodding his head just as I was getting into the good part, so I paused and asked, "Have you heard this story before?"

"Yes," he answered, "three minutes ago when Joel told it. But please continue because your version is much funnier. Joel didn't share all of those details with us!"

Now, it's no secret that men and women communicate differently, and Joel and I are no exception. It doesn't mean that one of us is better than the other; it simply means that we're wired differently. So we have to learn how to adapt to one another's communication style. Over the years, I've learned that Joel doesn't like hearing every single detail of a story even though I do. I want to know exactly what was said, who said it, how they said it, and what they were wearing! That's why it can take me fifteen minutes to tell a story that Joel can tell in two minutes flat! Knowing this, I try not to tell him every detail, although it's not always that easy.

One time, I was enthusiastically telling Joel something that I thought was important, and just as I was getting to the good part, I noticed his eyes beginning to glaze over. So I began talking faster and faster, attempting to get the whole story out before I "lost him," but it didn't do any good. Finally I said, "You don't want to hear all of this, do you?"

It wasn't what he said; it was how he looked. I could tell by his body language that I lost him after the first three minutes. At first I got frustrated and thought, I am not telling him anything anymore! But of course, that didn't last. So I just made the necessary adjustments in my communication with him, and now I try to tell him only the most important details of the story. (You and I know he's missing the real juicy parts!) When I see his eyes start glazing over, I don't get upset. It's just my clue that he is going into "detail overload," so I adapt to his communication style.

Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "Victoria, why would you change yourself in order to please Joel?"

The truth is that I'm not changing who I am; I'm changing the way I communicate so I can have a better relationship with my husband. I want Joel to hear me, so I adapt to the way he listens best. It is good for me and good for him.

What can you do to adapt your communication style to others? When you put others first, you are sowing good seeds that will produce a harvest of peace and unity in the relationships in your life!

"Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another" (Romans 12:10, NKJV).

Affirm on Purpose.... Life on Purpose (Coming soon)

" You reap what you say" -Brett Bonner

Always ready to do what is good!

 Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. ² They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone. (Titus 3:1-2)

 

 

Hello Everyone! This has been an area that I have been dealing with for a few weeks now. Doing good! I believe that I am a good person at heart, we all are. It's just the choice that we make can sometimes be evil and disobedient to what God has spoken to us about. Sometimes, God will speak to me to do something nice and sincere for a person or just offer a kind and encouraging word and I get discouraged. Negative thoughts creep into my mind.(we have to stay on top of our thoughts, this is not an area that we can allow to control us) Some thoughts that would come to mind are, why should I do this or say this to this person, they will never be appreciative of my gesture. Maybe they won't respond the way I expect or if at all.  

 

 For example, when we pray for people and want to see a change in them or our situation, encourage them! We can not change them, but God can. So as God does his work in them, encourage them along the way. It will make them desire the change that God is working on with-in them more and more. Remember, often times when we pray for change in someone else or a situation, God will first work a change in us! He is stretching us to deal with the situation.  Don't stop encouraging them because you don't see change or the person isn't responded the way you imagined right away, they may fight against it, haven't you done this before?! Be like Christ,  do not judge, learn to forgive and be compassionate and loving to others. Love others for who they are in that moment! They are a work in progress just like you and me!

 

So, no matter what the outcome you have to sow good seeds. Do good unto others ALWAYS. "Do the right thing when you don't feel like  it , those are the times of growth and really see God work"- Joyce Meyer!

 

Be Inspired,

 

Sweet Lady! :)

Peacefulness

This post comes via my devotional this morning from Joyce Meyer and I wanted to share it with you. This devotional can be found at  http://www.joycemeyer.org/Articles/Devotional.aspx

The Peaceful Mind

by Joyce Meyer - posted February 15, 2012

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. —Isaiah 26:3

What is it about nighttime that makes us more vulnerable to satanic attack? Is it because daylight is gone and it’s dark? Is there some kind of association between evil and the dark hours of night? We are usually able to cope with whatever happens to us during the day, but sometimes it’s a different story at night.
My theory is that by evening, most of us are tired and weary, and we just want to lie down, close our eyes, and drift into peaceful sleep. That is one of Satan’s favorite times to engage us in the battle for our minds. He knows that when we are exhausted and sleepy, we are not as resistant to his attacks. And just as we are about to drop off to sleep, he makes his move.

If we recognize that we’re more susceptible to the attack of the enemy at night, we can take steps to be better prepared to stand against him.

Some of my friends tell me that they find it helps to meditate on scriptures such as Philippians 4:8, which tells us to think on good things—things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and excellent. Or they claim the promise of Isaiah 26:3: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You. . . .”

These words from the Bible enable us to remain vigilant even in the dark hours of night. By using the Word of God, we can defeat every onslaught of the enemy—even in our weakest hours.
But if we have not armed ourselves with the Word and spent some time in prayer, we will fall for Satan’s plan when he brings to mind some troublesome event of the day, and asks, “Why did you say that? How could you have been so insensitive?”

He takes advantage of us when he knows we are weak and the most vulnerable to his influence. His goal is to disturb our thoughts and rob us of the peaceful rest that our bodies need. One of his tricks is to cause us to focus on the problems of the day, suggesting that we must immediately—in the middle of the night—determine the best way to settle the issue.

I experienced nights like this years ago, and I didn’t always win the battle. But as a mature Christian, I now know how to fight the good fight of faith. Here’s one thing I figured out a long time ago: It is not wise to make decisions in the middle of the night. There may be times when God demands an immediate surrender, and those are powerful moments in our lives. But most decisions can wait until the next day.
Perhaps we spoke hastily or didn’t respond kindly to someone’s need. The issues are often little things that we probably could have handled better. But as Satan wages his battle in the dark of night, those little things seem to take on importance and urgency—so much so that we believe we will never sleep unless we settle the issue immediately.

When Satan tries to pull that nighttime trick on me, I’ve learned to say, “I’ll deal with this issue in the morning, when the sun is shining. After I’ve rested, I can cope.” I’ve also learned that I can say, “Lord, I surrender this to You. Give me Your rest, Your peace, and help me to make the right decision in the morning.” That works for me!

All you need

Recently I asked God to remove me from a situation in my life, if it was not apart of His will. I have asked Him numerous times, yet I never received an answer until now! Yesterday when reading 2 Corinthians, I came across this scripture...

    Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." 2 Corinthians 12:8-9.

God has been pushing me to grow EVEN STRONGER through this situation. I have learned that I am not putting all of my trust in Him and I need to learn to DEPEND ON HIM and not give into my weaknesses. He is not going to remove me from the situation but He is giving me the grace to withstand it. When I cannot do anything else, I need to REST and STAND on his promises. I need to STOP trying to figure out things on my own! It never works anyhow! (smh at myself) That's when confusion comes into our lives through our mind (Our mind is cluttered with thoughts of different strategies of how we can figure out the unknown). God is not a God of confusion but of decency and order!

In those verses above, Paul is telling us that we should boast about our weakness because through them the power of Christ can work through us. Everyone of us can remember singing Jesus loves me in church as a child, remember this one line, They are WEAK but He is STRONG.

So when your weakness gets the best of you or u feel as though you are becoming frustrated  because you have done all you can, just Rest on His many promises and begin to sing that Hymn as reassurance that He loves you, this I know! ;)

Here are a couple Bible verses that I have been studying recently:

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:31-34 NLT)

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-4 MSG)

Be Inspired,

Sweet Lady ;)

Stand the TEST of time!

I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! Faith Under Pressure Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don't ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing. Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. James 1:1-18 (MSG)

I will be meditating on this today and wanted to share! Dont give up! :)

Be inspired,

Sweet Lady :)