Encouraged by God's Word

Archive for January, 2010

Hello Friends,

Everyday in my work email inbox I get a Word of the Day from the website dictionary.com. When I was getting these emails in the beginning, I was diligent in reading each and every one of them but lately I’ve deleted a lot of them because I usually don’t feel like reading them.

Recently I read one of the words and it was evince. Evince means to show in a clear manner; to manifest; to make evident; to bring to light.

Now as I read this word and its definition, I couldn’t help but to think about God. I thought about how he is clear when He shows you something. I thought about how He makes evident or brings to light those things which we are uncertain about.

I also thought about the many ways He has manifested Himself in my life.

What is manifested, or being made evident, in your life?

1 Corinthians 12:7 says But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

Now if you trust in the Lord and have a relationship with Him, His holy spirit will be manifested in you and you will begin to emulate His attributes.

And what are some of the attributes of God? I’m glad you asked.

God is:

   Love - 1 John 4:16

   Merciful - Psalm 145:9

   Gracious - 1 John 4:8

   Holy - Leviticus 19:2

   Just - Deuteronomy 32:4

   Wisdom - Proverbs 2:6

If we take on these attributes we will emulate God and when we emulate God, we become more like Him.

Will we be perfect like Him? Of course not because we are human and we make mistakes but our goal in life should be to be like Christ and the best way to do that is to emulate God.

Why don’t you evince your love for Christ today and be like Him?

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

Have you ever had a person go out of their way to try to get you upset? Those of us who work with kids see it a lot. Every now and then they do things that they assume will make us mad.

For instance, if I tell someone that their behavior is unacceptable and could get them in trouble, they intentionally misbehave just to get me upset. But what they don’t realize is I DON’T CARE.

Now I really do care about all of the youth I work with and I do care about their well being but they can’t make me upset because they don’t want to do what they’re supposed to do. They think they’re hurting me by being disobedient. It’s not hurting me, it’s hurting them and they don’t fully understand that.

When I go to sleep at night I’m not stressed over the fact that a young person is not working hard to better themselves. I really don’t loose any sleep over it because if I took on that position, all of my nights would be sleepless because there is always someone out there not doing what they’re supposed to do.

The peace I have at night is not contingent upon those around me. I don’t have peace based on what people say or do to me or how they treat me.

The source of my peace is much deeper than that.

John 16:33 says These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

In life you will experience a lot of suffering, pain and stress. People and things of the world are non reliable and can cause us tribulations. But in God you can experience peace amongst all the turmoil.

God wants us to know that no matter how bad things are, if we abide in Him, He will provide us the peace to make it through. We may still need to go through the tribulation but instead of us losing our minds, acting like fools and being defeated we will come through as conquerors.

We will conquer oppressive thoughts, fears and emotions. We will conquer bad habits. We will conquer destructive behaviors.

So whenever you experience some tribulation in your life, cheer up and know that God has overcome the world for you and if you trust in Him, you will become a over comer as well.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

Last week I talked about how I had a problem with two people I worked with (one in particular) and how it was hard for me to deal with them at first. But then when I let it go, and turned it over to God it helped me develop a peace within to deal with the situation.

I also mentioned how I had to pray for these individuals on a regular basis if I wanted to please God. This was tough at first but now that I know it’s not about me, it is quite easy to do.

I think that when I really started to understand why I was praying for my enemies, it made me get focused on the ways of God and not the ways of man. At first I was looking at the situation based on my limited knowledge and experiences and not with my spiritual eyes.

The way I felt and reacted was based on the flesh and not the spirit.

I knew that if I wanted to be someone who pleased God, I had to do what I didn’t want to do.

Proverbs 16:7 says When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Because I prayed for my colleagues, which was God’s way, something miraculous happened.

As I was leaving work on last Friday, this same guy who I didn’t like was coming in the building at the same time and when we made eye contact, he gave me the “head nod” as if he was saying “what’s up”. Needless to say I almost fell out because he spoke and was polite, but that’s not all. When I held the door for him, he said “thank you”.

Now for most of you that might not seem like much but we’ve worked together for a year and a half and this is the first time he has ever spoken to me.  And not only did he speak to me, he was courteous.

I truly believe this was a manifestation of Proverbs 16:7 that my prayers for this person pleased God and for a moment, I was at peace with my enemy.

Now he may not ever speak to me again but at least I know that prayer can change even the most difficult person in the world.

If you want to be at peace with your enemies, do whatever you need to do to please God.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

How do you deal with someone who you really don’t like?

For the most part, I get along with everybody but there are two people on my job who I REALLY don’t care for. These people are disrespectful, rude, impolite, unskilled and arrogant. They think they know EVERYTHING but don’t know anything and they refuse to listen to others because they think everybody in the office is dumb. No, I am not exaggerating!

Out of these two individuals, there is one who is worse than the other. I say that because he is so high and mighty, when he walks the halls and you say good morning to him, he ignores you and doesn’t speak. He acts as if you’re not even there.

He’s ignored me so many times it’s not even funny. And I’m not the only one he does this to. He does it to everyone. The only time he speaks to people is when he needs information and then he usually demands it and wants it immediately.

The fact that I really don’t like this guy gets to me. I don’t like feeling this way about another person but he takes me there. He gets under my skin. If I was younger, dumber and crazier, I probably would have said or done something that would have gotten me fired by now.

I have a coworker who keeps me grounded though. She tells me everyday, we need to pray for both of them. My thinking is since I don’t like them, I’m not praying for them, but then God convicted me.

Instead He told me I have to love them, bless them, do good to them and pray for them.

Matthew 5:44 says But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

Yes, according to the word, I have to do all of these good things to someone who treats people bad.

One thing in particular I’ve been doing for the past two weeks is I’ve been praying for them. I’ve learned that there is nothing anyone can do to make them change and it will only be by the power of God that will change them.

I have to turn it over to God and let Him handle it and every since I’ve done that, I’ve felt better. I don’t take their disrespect or rudeness personally. I just pray for them.

Now was it easy? Not at first but I had to learn to put aside my feelings and do what God wants me to do.

Do I think they’ll change anytime soon? Do I think they’ll start to show the staff any respect? Do I think they’ll work with us in a professional manner?

I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m only concerned about what God wants me to do because that’s all I can control. Regardless of what happens, I’m at peace.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Family,

I spoke with some young people recently about professionalism and how they should dress and present themselves and to be more specific, I was talking about how some of them were dressed for my job readiness training. I explained to them that in order to continue in the training the following week, they had to come dressed business casual.

No jeans, no sneakers, no t-shirts. Business casual.

Some of them complained but one person said that all they were doing was sitting in the room learning stuff and they didn’t see the need to dress a certain way and that it was “unfair”. Well I hit them with the classic line, “Life’s not fair, get used to it” and proceeded to explain that if they didn’t come properly dressed, they would not be allowed to attend my training.

These young people are in an internship program where they participate in a week long orientation, they report to their worksite the following week then they participate in training once a week for an additional 3 months.

And the whole time they’re doing this, they’re getting paid. Yes, we’re paying them to go to job readiness training and giving them a job so they can acquire work experience, skills, and references and earn money.

In spite of all that they are receiving, some don’t want to comply with the rules and are ungrateful for the opportunity presented to them.

1Timothy 4:4 (English Standard Version) says Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it. We may receive it gladly, with thankful hearts.

These young people were complaining about one thing and totally disregarding the other benefits. They looked at dressing a certain way as a problem and didn’t take in the big picture. They weren’t focusing on all the other benefits that go with the job training.

The word says that everything God created is good and that we should not reject any of it.

In life that is what we do. We tend to take one situation and dwell on how bad it is and don’t take into consideration all the good that comes along with it.

Many people (me included) are complaining about their supervisors and not being thankful that they are getting a paycheck every other week consistently. So what if the boss is a jerk. Those who are unemployed would love to have your boss because that would mean they are no longer

unemployed.

Or we complain that our house is too small and we hate sharing a bathroom with so many other people. There are some people who are homeless and living in shelters who would love to take your spot in a warm cozy house full of people this time of year.

Don’t get caught up in what’s wrong in you life. Don’t reject any of it. Receive it gladly with a grateful heart.

Focus on Jesus and all that He has done for you and don’t dwell on the bad stuff!

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!