Encouraged by God's Word

Posts Tagged ‘Peace’

Hello Family,

A couple of months ago my son went to a friend’s birthday party and it was a laser tag party. They took all of the kids and broke them up into two teams; the red team and the blue team.

Before they got started, everyone had to put on these vest that had sensors on them. They also made sure everyone had a charged laser tag gun. Then they talked to the kids and went over the instructions on how to play the game and how to score points.

In order to score points you had to hit one of the sensors on your opponent’s vest. Once your laser light hit the sensor, it would light up and you would score points individually and you would score points for your team.

The other parents and I went to the observation deck to watch the kids play the game. Some of the kids were all over the place and they were shooting at everything that was moving. But some of the kids took their time and made sure they aimed and hit the target.

Is your aim for righteousness on target or are you all over the place?

2 Timothy 2:22 (Amplified Bible) says Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness; [and aim at and pursue] faith, love, [and] peace in fellowship with all [Christians], who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

Following Christ is similar to playing laser tag.

In order to be an effective Christian you must have your spiritual lasers focused on Christ. You must be willing to follow Christ in a structured way and not be all over the place.

In laser tag, if you just shoot randomly hoping to hit your target, you might get lucky once in a while but chances are you won’t do well.

Well when you randomly throw out some weak prayers every now and then and squeeze in some lame devotion time with God every once in a while, you won’t be successful either. You’ll continue to miss the mark every time.

And in laser tag you must have a charged gun in order to hit your target. As a Christian, your faith must be charged and strong and you must be willing to follow God regardless of the circumstances.

If your faith is strong and your aim in on target, you’ll have a better chance of hitting the mark. You won’t get it all the time because we’re not perfect but you’ll still have some success.

So from now on, take good aim and make sure you are pursuing righteousness, faith, love, word, deed, love and peace in fellowship with all Christians. Get laser focused in your pursuit of Christ.

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!