Practice when it is easy so you do well when it is hard

Pilots, sailors, and many other professions routinely practice emergency procedures, so if they face an emergency they know what to do and have done it successfully in the past.

Pilots practice flying on instruments (needed for bad weather) when the weather is good, using a hood to restrict their vision, and with a qualified pilot in the right seat.

Christians need to practice also

God tells us to keep His statues and practice them. And He sanctifies us.

You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. (Leviticus 20:8)

Skills don’t start full-blown. When children start walking, they fall, get up, and walk again. Similarly, we don’t live perfect Christian lives as soon as we are saved. (Don’t you wish?!)

Spiritually, we need to practice as well. Work at thanking and trusting God, for example, when faced with “small” issues so trusting Him in a tragedy comes readily.

For example

It is a beautiful day for your picnic. Thanking and trusting God comes easy.

You’ve planned a special celebration at a park … but it is sleeting. Thanking and trusting God is harder, but we must thank and trust.

A hurricane or tornado damages your community, and/or your home. He is the same good God, with the same holy, loving purposes for you, His child. Thank and trust Him that He will use that difficult event to make you into the image of His Son.

Set your heart

We must determine to thank and trust Him when it is a beautiful day, developing the habit to thank and trust Him when it is hard and we don’t understand.

Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. (Ezra 7:10)

He is worthy.

Giving thanks to God is a command. Being grateful to Him shows we love Him. Gratitude serves Him, praises Him, and worships Him. (See Gratitude)

But how can we do this better? How can we give Him thanks with all our hearts? (Psalm 138:1) How can we overflow with gratitude? (Colossians 2:7)

Fundamentals of Gratitude

The better we know God, the more grateful we are.

The better we know how much God loves us, the more grateful we are.

The better we know God’s loving control over what He brings or allows into our lives, the more peaceful we are, and the more grateful we are.

The better we know God’s plan for the world, His forthcoming victory over evil, His rewards for His children, and His judgment on sinners, the more peaceful we are in any situation, and the more grateful we are.

The key to each of those is to know the word of God, the Bible, and pray. If you don’t have a daily Bible study routine, start! Memorization (which I’m terrible at, but know I need) stores the Word of God in your heart, helping you remember His word.

No one is satisfied with their “prayer life,” but keep working on it.

Tips during the day

Remember. Remember. Remember.

Remembering who God is and who we are to Him, trumps any difficulty. It shifts our focus from problems to eternal reality.

Remember God’s answers to prayer in your own life, and in others. God is at work.

Recite Bible verses about His love for you. Remind yourself that you are His creation, His child. He has a reason for the situation. You can trust Him.

Remember His promises. You are headed to glory!

Stay alert.

As you see nice, funny, wholesome things during the day, thank Him. Deliberately look for the good things, and thank Him. [It can be a habit to see the good … or to see the bad. I’m not advocating for Pollyanna, and we do need to be aware of issues around us. But we need to put things in eternal context.]

As you see things that concern you, thank Him that He is God, and working His holy plan to a righteous victory over evil. Thank Him that, for you, He is working all things for good, making you more and more like Jesus Christ.

Ask yourself: in this situation, what am I grateful for?

Notice when you grumble, and deliberately turn that to thanksgiving.

Regularly enumerate things you are grateful for.

Gratitude is a discipline rooted in faith.

Press on!

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Giving thanks in everything is God’s will for YOU! For YOU. (And me.)

Reread that verse inserting your name!

Kristin is to give thanks in everything. [Your name] is to give thanks in everything.

“Everything” means all the time and everywhere. In good times and bad. In sickness and in health.

We need an “attitude of gratitude.” “A worldview of gratitude.” “A disposition of our hearts.” “A habit of life.”

Gratitude is a command; Obeying is love

We are commanded to give thanks in everything, and all God’s commands are meant for our good. Obedience always brings blessing.

Obeying God’s commands shows we love Him.

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

Gratitude requires trust in God.

It’s easy to be thankful when we receive what we see as good things. Being thankful when bad times come requires that we trust our almighty, loving God.

Something may not look good, but through God’s incredible, holy providence, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Even though we may not be able to imagine how something could be good, God is good. And He is God (and we are not).

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9)

We have every reason to be grateful for whatever He brings or allows into our lives.

Gratitude is service to God

By gratitude … we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. (Hebrews 12:28)

Gratitude to God is praise and worship.

He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me. (Psalm 50:23)

I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:30)

Intentionally decide to be grateful, out of obedience and love.

Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)

Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:4–5)

Praise God!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Hallelujah!

Through His resurrection, we are born again to a living hope

Christians are born again to a living hope!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)

Living hope rests on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Our living hope is hope in our eternal life, in our forthcoming glorification. Our living hope rests on Christ Jesus, who is our hope, on the God of hope, and on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ Jesus, who is our hope. (1 Timothy 1:1)

Living Hope is eternal

Just as God — Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit — is living and eternal, so our living hope is eternal. It never dies. Our living hope is secured through Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

It means we have (for sure) a future, eternal life with God.

Abound in living hope NOW

As we abound in our living hope, we are filled with joy and peace.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

Our living hope looks forward to glory, knowing that we will be resurrected just as our Lord and Savior was.

He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus. (2 Corinthians 4:14)

This gives us faith and strength to persevere through hard times now. We know, we KNOW, that God is bringing us Home, and whatever we are going through is “momentary.”

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Look ahead in our living hope

Look ahead to our promised, secured, eternal life. As we look ahead, we abound in hope, in joy and peace.

Praise Almighty God.

Encouragement is fuel for the day.

I pray you have one or more people who regularly encourage you. Or circumstances that lift you up. And I pray that you do not have a discourager in your life.

What to do if we don’t have encouragers and/or do have discouragers in our own lives:

Pray

Pray for an encourager. Pray for your discourager.

Encourage others

We can, and should, deliberately encourage others.

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another.  (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

There are rewards. We are encouraged when we encourage others. We’ve kept our Lord’s command to encourage, and obedience always brings blessing.

Encourage yourself in the Lord

We should, like David, strengthen, encourage, ourselves in the Lord. (1 Samuel 30:6)

If you are a child of God, having received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior*, you have promises and hope that fundamentally encourage you, both for this life and the life to come.

There is encouragement in Christ. (Philippians 2:1)

We have the encouragement of the Scriptures. (Romans 15:4)

As we take refuge in our Lord, we … have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast. (Hebrews 6:18)

Promises

There are entire books that enumerate God’s promises to us, His children,* and which encourage us. I was just given such a book, 335 pages long.

Here is one promise to us, children of God. We WILL make it to glory. It’s not that we can make it, we WILL make it. Hallelujah!

Father, please help us look to You and Your word in increasing knowledge and fervor. Please help us believe ALL that You say to us. Help us strengthen, encourage, ourselves in You. And, please, bring encouragers into our lives, and help those who discourage us and others.

*When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God adopts us (Ephesians 1:5). (See Becoming a Child of God.)

Lies We Believe

All of us believe lies, some are spiritual lies from the father of lies, Satan (John 8:44); other lies affect our “normal” routines.

One of the lies I believe is that when I get caught up, I can rest. That lie keeps me going, which can be good, but it creates stress when I’m not working on something, and think I should be, which is not always good.

More serious though, are the spiritual lies Christians believe. We might believe God doesn’t love us, or that we can lose our salvation, or that He won’t bring good out of everything, or that we …

The remedy to stop believing spiritual lies is to know the Truth: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Word. Then we can identify what lies we believe and counter the lies with truth. (See Don’t Listen to Lies.)

For other lies affecting our day to day living, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), we will live more and more in His truth, in His way. Those pesky lies will become apparent and we can learn how to live as He would want. That is a life time project!

And, despite the photo (we may get 20” of snow today and tonight), spring is coming.

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Father, help us know Your truth and live in Your truth. Help us abide in Christ day by day, living lives that are pleasing to You.

Who is Your Enemy?

The owners of that car and truck may think geese are their enemies, especially after they had to clean up the mess!

In these dark days, you may regard certain people, officials, politicians, political parties, advocates, or social movements as enemies. You hate, and should hate, murder, abuse, assaults, looting, arson, etc. etc. etc. etc.

We should hate what God hates. And God hates sin.

God’s enemies

Unredeemed people are God’s enemies (Romans 5:10)

Those who love the world, are God’s enemies.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

God loves His enemies

God hates His enemies, although, in this world, He shows them love.

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners [and His enemies], Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. (Romans 5:10)

[God] is kind to ungrateful and evil men. (Luke 6:35)

We are to love our enemies

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)

Our “enemies” are our mission fields, and are to be loved.

Let’s pray for them and for our country. Individually, we may or may not be called to try to reach them or speak or write about it. But all of us are called to pray.

Praise our Almighty Sovereign God who is working all things according to His holy plan.

You’re awful. You don’t deserve to go to heaven.

I sure don’t deserve heaven, but, then, no one does.

What do you mean? I’m way better than you.

Yes, but I am not the standard.*

Huh?

Jesus Christ is the standard. Are you as good as He?

I’ve lived a good life. I’m a good person.

I’m not concerned about the good you’ve done. But what about when you’ve done or thought something less than good? What does God have to say about that?

Huh? Do you mean I have to be perfect to go to heaven?

Yes.

Well, that is impossible.

Exactly!

What do I have to do to go to heaven?

Confess your sins. Ask for forgiveness. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and God who raised Him from the dead. Receive Christ as Lord and Savior. (See Becoming a Child of God.)

You can pray something like this:

“Father, I confess I have sinned against You and repent before You. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son, that He died for my sins, and that You raised Him from the dead. I receive Christ as my Lord and Savior. Take control of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”

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*God’s standard:““You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)

Change How You Feel

Feelings arise from thoughts. To change your emotions, change your thinking. To change your thinking, know the Bible.

When I was a new Christian, I remember an illustration about feelings. It was a picture of a train: The engine was the Word of God, pulling a car labeled “thinking,” pulling a third car, labeled “feeling.” The point was to saturate yourself with the Bible, and conform your thinking to what God says. Feelings then follow.

We have all seen people who run away with their “feelings.” The recent, horrible event at the Kansas City Superbowl celebration apparently started with someone who didn’t like how someone else was looking at them. Wow.

What to do

Immerse ourselves in the Bible. Study daily. Memorize. Ponder. Repeat His word throughout the day. Keep God in mind. Preach God’s word to yourself.

Work to conform our thinking to the Bible. Work to interpret what we see and experience though the light of God.

Challenge our feelings. Does this feeling conform to what the Bible says?

Examples

When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” (Matthew 14:26–27)

The disciples’ fear was challenged by Jesus’ presence.

Do not be afraid any longer, only believe. (Mark 5:36)

Belief conquers fear.

Easier Said Than Done

This, of course, is easier said than done, and requires prayer, discipline, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. (Titus 3:5)

Pray

Father, please help me, help us, conform our thinking and feeling to Your word. Help us live our lives in Your light. In Jesus’ name we pray.