TRUST GOD WITH YOUR FEELINGS

Friday, 30th April 2021

Psalms 62:8 – Trust in God at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.

What do you do with the feelings that come from disappointment in a relationship? You can’t stuff them away, because they will just pop out somewhere else.

You need to trust God and tell Him all your problems because He is your refuge.

Tell Him you are angry or disappointed or that you feel nothing. In those times when you feel nothing, when you feel like you’ve lost the love, go to God and tell Him that and then trust Him. Hebrews 10:23 teaches us, “We can trust God to do what He promised”. And He promises to pour His love into our hearts.

Love is a feeling, but it is also an action. And when you lose the feeling to love someone, move forward with the action of loving them, and that will help you reclaim your feelings of love.

We all lose the feeling to love at sometime. It usually happens when we decide to live with a problem instead of talking it out or openly facing it. Start by telling God your feelings about the problem. From there, He can begin to give you the strength to talk to your loved one about it. As you do this, God will begin to restore your feeling of love for that person.

Whether you are a husband or a wife who needs to let go of a disappointment or misunderstanding or if you need to accept the differences you have with a close friend or a family member, I pray that God will begin to bring back your joy.

But it’s a process, and it begins when you decide to trust God and tell Him your feelings and when you choose to carry on with the action of love even when you’ve lost the feeling of love.

Patience levels

CHOOSE TO KEEP LOVING

Thursday, 29th April 2021

Ephesians 4:2 – Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

If there is any high and low that is greater than any other, it is the high and low of relationships. You can experience the high of joy and the low of disappointment sometimes within minutes of each other.

When you find yourself struggling with each other’s faults, go to God with your disappointments.

Disappointments come into relationships because none of us are perfect. We have an idealised view of love, relationships, and marriage, and when reality doesn’t match up to this picture, it leaves us disappointed.

We will never have the perfect marriage or the perfect family because we are imperfect people. The idea that two imperfect people can come together and have a perfect relationship is unrealistic. You need to adjust your expectations, be patient and tolerant with each other while trusting God to continue His work of perfection in us.

One of the reasons we are often disappointed in our relationships is because we’re asking another human being to meet needs that only God can meet. Another human being can’t promise you that they will always be with you or that they won’t fail you. Only God can meet those promises. He tells us in His Word, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).

When we get to heaven, there will be no more disappointment or pain. Until then, you can choose to keep loving. As 1 Corinthians 13:7 says, “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance”.

WE’RE ALL DIFFERENT

Wednesday, 28th April 2021

Romans 15:7 – Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

It’s easy to talk about relationships when everything is going great, but what do you do when things are headed in the wrong direction? How do you turn around a relationship?

God created love in relationships and made us live in relationships with each other. His advice and direction for relationships can make a real difference. Over the next few days, we will talk about five specific things from God’s Word that you can do to begin to turn things around in your relationships.

You need to realise that God has made you different and then thank Him for your differences. From the very beginning, God created us differently. Men and women are different physically but also in the way we work, think, shop, even watch TV, we do everything differently. And we should rejoice in those differences.

If two people agree on everything, one of them isn’t necessary in that relationship. The fact is that God has put you in a relationship, be it marriage or a good friendship where you probably look at life differently from each other or have different backgrounds. Because of that, you each bring things to the relationship that could not be there otherwise.

God made you different so you can complement each other, complete each other, and strengthen each other.

As today’s verse says, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7). When you accept each other for your differences, it not only helps your relationship, it brings praise to God. Why? Because you’re accepting the fact that God made you different so you can learn from each other and grow in relationship to each other.

That’s the starting point for turning your relationships around: thank God for your differences.

FREED TO LOVE FEARLESSLY

Monday, 26th April 2021

1 John 4:18 – Love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love.

When people experience conflict in relationships, it’s often a sign that one party is trying to control the other. What’s beneath that control? It’s fear. Insecurity causes us to try to control others or resist control. When you’re so insecure that all you think about is what others think of you, it destroys your relationships and disables your life.

It’s an amazing dilemma we have as human beings: We long to be close, but we also fear being close. We long to have intimacy with others, but we’re also scared to death of it.

Insecurity prevents intimacy and destroys your relationships. You can’t get close to somebody if there’s fear in the relationship. If insecurity destroys relationships, then what builds them? Love! Love builds relationships.

How does love expel all fear?

Love takes the focus off of you and puts the focus on others. Focusing on the other person gives you the power to throw fear out of your life.

So how do you find that power to focus on other people? You realize how much God loves you. The moment you begin to understand how much God loves you, you don’t have to prove yourself anymore. You don’t have to spend your life trying to impress other people, because you already know that God loves you.

Your identity and self-worth are not caught up in what others might think of you. When you’re secure in your relationship with Christ, you’re no longer pressured by everybody else’s expectations. God’s love frees you to love others fearlessly.

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK

Biblical Reasons Why We Should Fast

THE LORD WATCHES OVER YOU

Saturday, 24th April 2021

Psalms 145:20 – The LORD watches over all who love him.

When God fills you to overflowing, you never need to fear the future. His goodness and mercy are with you every day. You’re following the Good Shepherd, and He is out in front of you with His rod and staff. And at the back of the flock are a couple of sheepdogs—goodness and mercy—nipping at your heels, making sure you don’t run off into a ravine. These two sheepdogs keep you on track as you follow the Good Shepherd.

God’s goodness is watching over you.
Did you know that a second has never passed in your life when God was not watching you? God is always paying attention to you, because He created you to love you. He knows the highs and lows, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs. God knows every detail of your life.

Not only does He watch over you, He also protects you. Did you know the Bible says that God even sends His angels to protect you wherever you go (Psalm 91:11)?

God’s protection doesn’t mean that only good things will happen to you. Suffering and disappointment will still come your way. But God will ensure that good will come out of everything that happens to you.

God’s grace is working in you.
The Bible says in Isaiah 60:10, “I will have mercy on you through my grace”.

Grace is when God gives you what you don’t deserve. Mercy is when God doesn’t give you what you do deserve. For all the ways you’ve sinned, failed, and made mistakes, you deserve punishment. Yet God pardons you and forgives you through Christ—that’s mercy.

It is God’s nature to be merciful. He loves to show His mercy. He doesn’t get bored with it. He doesn’t get tired of it. He doesn’t get frustrated that you keep coming back for more. God doesn’t say, “Okay, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we’ll give goodness, and on Tuesday and Thursday, we’ll give mercy, and on Saturday and Sunday, you’re on your own.” He’s with you every moment of every day.

Nobody knows what’s going to happen next week, much less next year or in the next 10 years. But when you face the future, you can know this: God will fill your life to overflowing and His goodness and mercy will be with you. There is no need to fear.

HAVE A GLAMOROUS WEEKEND

REST IN GOD’S GOODNESS

Friday, 23rd April 2021

John 15:5 – I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me.

How do you rest in God’s goodness? How do you experience the abundant life He has for you?

Here are four daily habits that will help move you from overwhelmed to overflowing.

1. Stay connected to Jesus every day:
“I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me” (John 15:5).

If you try to go through life on your own power, you’re going to be overwhelmed. You cannot fulfill your purpose and enjoy God’s goodness unless you’re plugged in to his power.

2. Replace your complaining with gratefulness:
“Do everything without complaining and arguing” (Philippians 2:14).

Science has proven that complaining and practicing gratitude both have an impact on your health. While complaining is an unhealthy emotion, on the other hand, studies have shown that gratitude is the healthiest emotion. It produces serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin in your brain—those are the chemicals that boost happiness and lower stress.

3. Stop being stingy, and start being generous:
God wired a universal law into the world: The more you give away, the more you’re going to get. He did that because He wants you to become more like Him. God is a giver. Everything we have is the gift of God’s generosity. The more generous you are, the more God is going to bless you in every single area of your life. Your life will overflow!

4. Stop comparing, and start being content:
“It is better to be content with what little you have. Otherwise, you will always be struggling for more, and that is like chasing the wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:6).

Contentment is not abandoning your ambition. You ought to have ambition. You ought to make the most of what God has given you. Contentment doesn’t mean you don’t have any goals, dreams, or plans for your life.

Contentment simply means you don’t need more in order to be happy. You’re happy right now with what you’ve been given. Contentment means your happiness doesn’t depend upon circumstances; it depends upon God, the Good Shepherd who has blessed you with every good gift.

By nature, we are discontent. But by God’s grace, we can rest content in His goodness to us. When you grasp that most things in your life are simply gracious gifts from God, your life will go from overwhelming to overflowing.

BE GENEROUS

Thursday, 22nd April 2021

2 Corinthians 9:7 – “For you must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. ‘For God loves a person who gives cheerfully’”.

Generosity isn’t about your wealth. It’s about your willingness to help others, to show love to others, and to honor God.

In 2 Corinthians 9:7, God gives us three characteristics of an authentic generosity: “You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. ‘For God loves a person who gives cheerfully’”.

This kind of biblical generosity is:

1. Always thoughtful:
“You must each decide in your heart.” You need to think about how much or what you’re going to give. Don’t do it impulsively or emotionally. You make up your own mind, and you plan it.

2. Always voluntary:
“Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure.” Never, ever, ever give out of guilt. When you do, you don’t get credit for it, and it won’t grow your heart.

3. Always cheerful:
“For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” If you can’t give cheerfully, then just don’t. You don’t get any credit for giving unless you give to somebody cheerfully.

Be generous with your giving. Again, it’s not about the amount you give—it doesn’t have to be about money at all. You can be generous with your time or with your talents. Whatever you give, do it thoughtfully, voluntarily, and cheerfully.

How do you take the communion?