Ah, love.
Or as my sister would prefer it described, “ew, love.”
Whatever your take on love, it does exist. It exists in moms with their children, owners with pets, close friends, families, etc. It’s all around us.
I have learned some things about love recently. I’ve learned that yeah, love is a feeling you have... but actual love... real love... the kind that lasts... is more than just a feeling.
It’s a choice you make. It’s all in the choices you make.
It’s choosing to care about that person even when it’s hard.
It’s choosing to put them first and help them, even if you don’t want to.
It’s choosing to work through the hard stuff because you know that in the end, it’s the best thing for both of you.
Real love is sacrifice.
The best kind of love is found in Christ. He’s the One Who knows everything we have ever done, and chooses to love us anyways.
He’s the One who took the blame for us, took on our sin, our shame, and hung on the cross to die because of it.
Before that, He left His home in Heaven to come down to us, be born as a baby, live among us, teach us, then die for us.
We take time to celebrate Christmas, which is the celebration of the birth of Christ, our Savior. We celebrate how He came to us, how He lived among us to teach us, how He died to take away our sins, and how He ascended into Heaven to be with His Father.
Jesus showed us real love. He showed us what love really looks like. He took on everything for us. He knows who we are, all we have done, yet He still chooses to love us.
I bet He didn’t feel like loving us. I bet He didn’t feel like dying on a cross for us. I bet He doesn’t always feel like loving us every single day, but He does.
He chooses to love us. He chose to die for us.
He chooses to love, and so should we.
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Trusting... Well... Trying
Trust.
Such a simple word, but a hard action.
People say, "oh, you can trust me." You soon find out whether you can or not.
You trust yourself to make decisions everyday. Everything, great or small, you trust you can make the right decision. Everything from deciding what shirt and shoes you want to wear to how you want to spend your time and money. But there are some things we don't know if we will make the right decision, so we ask opinions and trust others to give us some good advice. I'm talking decisions like... college.... relationships... moving...
Sometimes we trust the wrong people. We take their advice and trust them when we really shouldn't.
There is one Person Who we can actually trust, who will make the right decision every time.
That's Jesus.
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."
I don't know about you, but when I read that, I feel a tremendous amount of pressure that was on my shoulders go away.
It isn't up to me.
I'm not alone to make these decisions.
I can go to Jesus and ask Him, "Hey, what should I do here?"
I can look to the Bible, read it, and see what I can do in certain situations.
Trust.
Trust God with your plans.
I'm a control freak. I love making plans and figuring things out. When I was a teenager, I had a plan for my whole life. I was going to be engaged by this time, have my degree by this time, married by this time, have children by this time, own a house by this time, etc. etc. etc.
Oddly enough, every plan I made got flipped upside down.
At the time, it was so disappointing. Looking back now... I am so glad my plans didn't work out. Cuz God had much better ones, and I am just beginning to understand what those plans look like.
Proverbs 16 has some stuff to say about plans....
"We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer." (verse 1)
"Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." (verse 3)
God has the best plans in mind for us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to do well. He has our best in mind.
God is the one person we can trust. Though it may seem like life is out of control, that God is nowhere to be found, He is right there beside you, trying to help you, if you'd just let Him.
Trust Him.
Trust Him with it all. Your dreams... your desires... your life.
Trust Him to help you make the right decisions.
Find out what He wants for you and for your life by:
1. Reading the Bible - lots of good info in there to show you how to live, and what God wants of you.
2. Praying - prayer is a two-way conversation. I often forget that. God is there to listen to you, and there will be times He will want to talk to you too. You just have to listen.
God knows all our dreams and our desires. Psalm 38:9 says "You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh."
God knows more about us and our lives than we or anyone else could ever know. Let's learn to trust Him with our lives and everything in our lives. It'll make things easier.
"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You." - Isaiah 26:3 -
Such a simple word, but a hard action.
People say, "oh, you can trust me." You soon find out whether you can or not.
You trust yourself to make decisions everyday. Everything, great or small, you trust you can make the right decision. Everything from deciding what shirt and shoes you want to wear to how you want to spend your time and money. But there are some things we don't know if we will make the right decision, so we ask opinions and trust others to give us some good advice. I'm talking decisions like... college.... relationships... moving...
Sometimes we trust the wrong people. We take their advice and trust them when we really shouldn't.
There is one Person Who we can actually trust, who will make the right decision every time.
That's Jesus.
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."
I don't know about you, but when I read that, I feel a tremendous amount of pressure that was on my shoulders go away.
It isn't up to me.
I'm not alone to make these decisions.
I can go to Jesus and ask Him, "Hey, what should I do here?"
I can look to the Bible, read it, and see what I can do in certain situations.
Trust.
Trust God with your plans.
I'm a control freak. I love making plans and figuring things out. When I was a teenager, I had a plan for my whole life. I was going to be engaged by this time, have my degree by this time, married by this time, have children by this time, own a house by this time, etc. etc. etc.
Oddly enough, every plan I made got flipped upside down.
At the time, it was so disappointing. Looking back now... I am so glad my plans didn't work out. Cuz God had much better ones, and I am just beginning to understand what those plans look like.
Proverbs 16 has some stuff to say about plans....
"We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer." (verse 1)
"Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." (verse 3)
God has the best plans in mind for us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to do well. He has our best in mind.
God is the one person we can trust. Though it may seem like life is out of control, that God is nowhere to be found, He is right there beside you, trying to help you, if you'd just let Him.
Trust Him.
Trust Him with it all. Your dreams... your desires... your life.
Trust Him to help you make the right decisions.
Find out what He wants for you and for your life by:
1. Reading the Bible - lots of good info in there to show you how to live, and what God wants of you.
2. Praying - prayer is a two-way conversation. I often forget that. God is there to listen to you, and there will be times He will want to talk to you too. You just have to listen.
God knows all our dreams and our desires. Psalm 38:9 says "You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh."
God knows more about us and our lives than we or anyone else could ever know. Let's learn to trust Him with our lives and everything in our lives. It'll make things easier.
"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You." - Isaiah 26:3 -
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