What is your prayer life like?

Be honest with yourself. How often do you spend time to talk with God? Just when you eat or when things are going really bad for you? Or do you pray on a regular basis? Do you talk to God about everything? The Lord longs to have fellowship with us... but we have to want it too. God is like our best friend, He is! He will stay with you through thick and thin, no matter what. You can always rely on the Lord for everything. The more you talk to God, the more closer you will be to Him and the better you will get to know Him. Are we longing to talk to God? Psalms 42:1;63:1 says, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God... My soul thirsts for you; my body longs for you." Do we desire to grow closer to Christ and to have a better relationship with Him? One of the things we can count on when we pray, is that He listens. An exert from A Young Woman's Call to Prayer by Elizabeth George says, "We're not talking to a brick wall when we pray-- we're talking to Someone who really listens." And that someone is the Lord Jesus Christ who cares for us and longs for fellowship with us.
We can talk to the Lord about everything;
1. We can talk to God about how we feel. If you're angry, dissappointed, depressed or whatever it may be. Tell God about it. He cares and listens. After all, God already knows what we're feeling before we even tell Him.
2. We can talk to God about what we want. The Bible says, "you have not because you ask not." All we have to do is ASK Him! When we want something, tell God that. ASK, ASK, ASK! Now, of course, we know that HE won't give us everything we want. But, as Christians, we should know what is good and what isn't good to ask for. It's our motive and whats in our heart. God is there waiting, all we have to do is just ask!
3. We can talk to God about  what we're going through. If we're facing tough times, trials, struggles, or anything else, Christ is there with open arms waiting for you to call on Him. Sometimes we may feel like, "Oh, God isn't working, where is He?" God IS working, we just can't see it yet. No matter what your're going through, know, GOD IS WORKING! Satan loves to plant doubtful thoughts in our minds, and make us depressed and feel like God isn't working. But do NOT believe those lies! Because guess what? God IS working in our lives and in our situations! He is there! Tell yourself, " I am going to trust the Lord and He IS WORKING!" Praise the Lord! We have a merciful Savior we can go to that listens, cares, loves, and is working in our life! ALl we have to do is just go to Him and call on His name.

It's A Pride Issue

Do you struggle with pride? The Bible says "God resists the proud." and "Pride goes before a fall," and "He gives grace to the humble." When we are prideful, we WILL fall eventually. 
Why are we prideful? Sometimes, we are prideful because we are covering up our insecurities. So we feel the need to tear everyone else down and like we have to do and be better than everyone else. Instead of being lovely, we want to be lovlier. This is the Pride of Life. We need to encourage one another and lift each other up, not tear them down.
How does this make you feel?  Have you ever been around someone who is always exalting themselves and being prideful all the time? It makes you sick, doesn't it? Our flesh sometimes thinks, "Oh, I can't wait till Judgement Day," or "I wish they would be pushed down to size," or even "I want to see them stumble and fall!" These thoughts of course are wrong! We should never pray for someone to fall. And when they do, do not applaud. The Lord doesn't like it when someone stumbles in their pride. Instead of praying FOR them to fall, we should pray for them to deal with their pride and ask God to help them with it.
God gives us our abbilities. Everything we can do (like our talents or gifts) comes from God. We didn't give it to ourselves. God made us and gave us our gifts to glorify Him with it so HE may be exalted. Not ourselves. We didn't do ANYTHING to recieve our talents so do not mis-use them.

What is Lovely?

What is lovely? In 1 Philippians 4: 8, it says, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praise-worthy, meditate on these things."
This verse is one of my life verses and favorite verse. It is a constant reminder to me to consider what I am meditating on throughout the day and through other things. What friends or piers are we hanging around with? Do they qualify according to this verse in Philippians? What books are we reading or movie are we watching? Satan can even come in sneaky ways and make us think that what we are wanting to do or who we are wanting to hang out with, is okay. But we need to make our standards and convictions on the Lord and His word, and not by what we feel or want to do. Sometimes, I find myself falling into that pit. Let me ask a question, are we making our own convictions and living by them or are we just following our parents instructions? There was a point in my life where I was just doing what my parents expected from me, and I didn’t realize that I was not setting my own standards. Then my parents brought something to my attention one night about setting my own convictions and not just following theirs. From that ngiht on, I have been making my own convictions as well with following my parents.
Back to the passage above, this scripture verse reminds me how easily certain thoughts creep in our minds and what do we do? Most of the time, we entertain that thought instead of peircing it with the sword of God’s word. How can we peirce wrong thoughts? By memorizing God’s word and using those scriptures to capture that thought. Let’s not give Satan the victory in our lives!

Waiting for God's Will

One thing I really feel the Lord trying to show me is waiting for His will for my life. Before, I have caught myself saying “I’m going to do this,” and “I am going to have this.” Then I realized that I was depending on my own self’s efforts and will instead of the Most High God’s. So instead of saying something that is depending on our will, we should say, “Lord willing.” You see, we can plan to do something or what we would like to have or do someday, but if it is not God’s will for us, it is not going to turn out right. The Lord’s will is so high and above our own expectations. Even when we can’t see God’s will at the time, wait… wait on God. Sometimes, we just rush ahead of God and fulfill our desires in our own ways which ultimately leads to trouble. When you wait for God’s perfect plan, timing, and will for your life, you will truly be more satisfied and blessed and we will be overjoyed that we waited for Christ’s perfect will. God’s will result in: true happiness and satisfaction and no regrets. What are things that we can wait for God’s best about? What about future spouses? (This is a big one for me. Sometimes, we think, “when will he come?” And this is when we take matters into our own hands. This process does NOT lead to ultimate happiness, but instead a life full of regrets and mistakes. Sometimes, we think our way is the best, but it’s not. It’s simply because we can’t see what God has in store for us yet, but we will. What should we be doing while we are waiting for God’s will? Serving and keeping our minds on Christ until the time comes. Like everything else in life, we need to trust God and give our lives to Him and wait for His perfect will and we will NOT regret it! Jeremiah 29:11 says, “’I know the plans I have for you;’ says the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and to give you a good future.’” Wait on God, and just watch Him richly bless you!