Ever Closer

Song Sunday is Shaylee Simeone Ever Close.

Through Thick And Thin

You don’t have to defend or explain what God is doing in you or in your life to anyone.

But when someone asks about the crazy unbelievably awesome “Hope” you have, be ready to speak up and defend it.

Keep your hearts at attention!

~ XXOO Michelle Cosby Bollom

If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God. —1 Peter 3:13-18 MSG

Some Good News

You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.~ Psalm 116:8

None of us likes to admit to being lost; we would rather project an image of confidence and purposefulness.

The writer of Psalm 116 had no such qualms. He did not hesitate to say that he was clearly “lost,” spiritually, emotionally, and physically. He had been “brought low” before the Lord helped him, and his life had been one of “trouble and sorrow” until the Lord delivered him.

The first step for us in finding our true selves is an honest assessment of our real condition, which is that we are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17).

Not a pretty picture, nor is it one that we readily admit to when we have our health, our loved ones, financial security, and plenty of creature comforts. But these can all be lost in a moment.

To think that earthly things alone make us rich is to live in delusion.

The good news of the gospel is that when Jesus saves us he makes us “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).

When we believe and trust God, we who once were lost are “found” in Christ (Phil. 3:9).

Prayer: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

Author: Tom Bast / Word of Hope Devotions

Better Than Diamonds

The best gift to give yourself and others…

Even better than diamonds…

– is forgiveness. 😘

A Conscious Effort

How the I pervades all things! —William Ellery Channing

If we could extract the “I” from our thoughts, some of us would lose our focus.

We have a tendency to think only of our comfort, our convenience, our point of view, our feelings, and our happiness.

What if we made a conscious effort every day to put someone else first?

What would it cost?

The results may surprise us, because one of the spiritual paradoxes is that putting another first, makes us happy.

It may be hard for the I in us to release its hold, but focusing on the needs of someone else can bring us a sense of deep personal satisfaction. ~ Karen Casey

Evaluate Your Connections

A Connection takes two parts to be connected.

If you are always initiating or keeping up the lines of communication you need to reevaluate the connection.

If you are spending more time and energy into a relationship that is not returning that same time and energy to stay connected, I encourage you to pray and ask God what connections are not conducive for you in your life or into this next season.

Trust God to sift and shift to make room for someone new that will give you the same time and energy that you invest in others.

Without reciprocity there is no relationship.

Mutual contributions, time and effort, is what makes for lasting and deeper Divine Connections.

— XXOO Michelle 😘

Be Present Today

Over and over, we begin again. —Banana Yoshimoto

Yesterday, we did the best that we could. Yesterday is over. We have slept. We think we know some of what today will hold. We may boil water in the same kitchen, take the same route to work, see some of the faces we usually see.

Along with the predictable, there may be a thousand unexpected experiences; a new color in the sky, a smile answering our own, a phrase of music, a sense of willingness rising within us to do something differently.

Let’s take some deep, slow breaths and begin the day with faith that whatever it brings, we’ll be present for it.

— Today’s Gift / Hazelden

Notice

Notice by Spencer Annis is this weeks #SongSunday

Better Or Worse

Every temptation leaves us, better or worse; neutrality is impossible. — Erwin Lutzer

Neutrality forces us to a dead end.

If we want to make progress – we have to choose to make a move!

Make sure your next move is for the better and not for the worse.

The Importance Of Obedience

Have you ever heard a sermon and you just about ran out of ink on all the little #NuggetDrops ?

This one from Bill Johnson was one of those! So, get your pencil sharpened!

The level of our love for the Lord is in our obedience.

My obedience is the litmus test (proving) that I am an authentic lover of God not just in mere words only.

Protect your heart from compromise by protecting your conscience.

A Lifestyle of obedience doesn’t control God but yields to God.

The hunger for the favor of man undermines faith.

Our greatest treasures in Heaven will be those not rewarded or recognized while here on earth.

Your “Yes” under the Lord Shouts! It shifts and changes atmospheres.

Our obedience never just affects our own life.

Even if … we still aren’t bowing! (Men thrown in the fiery furnaces reply as to their radical obedience to God)

Sinful lifestyles will get explained away by phony religious spiritual terminology and purposes. (Ex: Saul disobeying and keeping the sheep claiming they would be used as sacrifices unto the Lord.)

Obedience is better than sacrifice.

Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

I will obey regardless of the outcomes – because my obedience is unto the Lord.

Can you get up the 3rd day and pray – do we go out again? There are measures and realms of triumph and victory – some of which we will only get to taste of on the 3rd day.

Keep obeying the Lord!

The whole message can be heard here 👇🏻❤️