For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift. Not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10 Faith believes in Jesus. It is the only need for receiving God’s gift of salvation. There are two steps in Salvation in faith. What does a person believe about Christ? Active response from the heart of the person who desires to follow Christ as their savior. Faith firmly believes in…
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God Will Never Leave You
No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Joshua 1:5-7 How comforting that God will be with you! God won’t leave you or forsake you. This is a promise to all of his followers. He was there…
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Hope And Jesus
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6 Life is hard. I heard the line God is Good, All the time.” from the movie “God’s Not Dead.” I use it often. Have you used it? I am going to have to pay attention to when I use that line. Am I only using it when things are going smoothly? Do I use it when I am in the middle of a storm? When we live like Jesus, we must live with the tension of accepting that life is never going to be exactly how we want it…
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Trials Do End
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Mark 8:36 Have you ever been in a trial where you wondered if it would ever end? Or if it will end? Or how about one trial after another? We have. The last hard trial I went through, I sat at Jesus’s feet and let Him be in control. I learn many, many good things during this time. Read Matthew 4:10. What is the first thing Jesus says to satan? How can we resist the devil, according to James 4:7? This may require us to resist, to turn from temptation. …
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Satan’s Half Truths
There’s a right time to hold on and another to let go. Ecclesiastes 3:6 Satan uses Scripture to tempt Jesus by using half-truths to make God jump in and save him. However, we know this doesn’t work! Let’s read Matthew 4:5-7 and Luke 4:9-10. In what city does Satan tempt Jesus? How did Jesus get there? What did Satan tempt Jesus to do? It would probably be easy for Jesus to put Satan in his place. Jesus chose to go through the temptation, the pain, to choose to identify with our pain. He chose this to show us how to walk and live in victory…
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Letting Go of Following Feelings
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 Feelings! We all have them. What do we do with them, though? Do we let them drive how we handle situations? Our feelings are not wrong. God created us to have feelings. They are neither good nor bad. They are tools to help us learn how not to behave impulsively and act out without taking responsibility. Let’s read Proverbs 4:23. The Hebrew word for heart is leb. It is a combination of our minds and our desires. The wisdom in this verse is to guard…
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Letting Go
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 Do you recall a time of an “I want” moment? We all have them. It can be people, places, or things in our lives that will satisfy us. However, do these things really satisfy us? No, they don’t. If anything, they probably have more disappointment than satisfaction. Let’s go to Numbers 11: 1, 4-6. What were the Israelites complaining about? What did the Israelites wish that they had? What did they claim they had lost? They are pretty discouraged. They have…
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Only Jesus Satisfies
But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 What is your go-to thing to find satisfaction for a moment in your life? Mine is a diet coke or chocolate with caramel. You know the time in your life where things are just hectic and you are hungry, but you don’t have time to stop and eat. Or how about the times where you need time to stop, but it won’t. What is the one thing that you grab to help you through that time? That is what I am talking about. …
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What Do You Want?
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 Do you want things? Do you buy lots of things that you don’t need? What do you long for? Today we are going to spend some time with Jesus before He went to the wilderness. Read Matthew 4:2. How long did Jesus fast? What was Jesus’ physical condition after fasting for that period of time? Jesus is fully divine, and He experienced the wilderness as a human. He was hungry. Why did Jesus spend forty days fasting? What is the benefit of fasting? Two important reasons tie Jesus’ experience…
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What Is Tempting You
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:2-3 Have you ever compared how Jesus and the Israelites each handled their wilderness experience? They both experience God in those moments. However, the Israelites complained and wanted to go back to their former lives, while Jesus was humble to the Holy Spirit’s leading. We all face temptation. Temptation comes in all shapes, forms, and sizes. The one thing we must remember is temptation does not come from God. Do not believe the…