Growing in Grace

In Beth Moore's book "Breaking Free" she first covered the five benefits of being a child of God. She next wrote about the five obstacles that stand in the way of experiencing the five benefits. The first benefit of being a child of God is to know God and believe Him. The largest obstacle, therefore, to this benefit is that of "unbelief, choosing not to believe in God . We're not talking about believing in God. We're talking about believing God, believing what He says. We can believe in Christ for salvation in a matter of seconds and yet spend the rest of our days believing Him for little more." (p. 53) "Unbelief is crippling. The steps we take forward with God we take through faith. Therefore, unbelief literally cripples our spiritual 'walk', casting huge obstacles in the way of a victorious life. . . If we're willing to admit our lack of confidence in Him, Christ is more than willing to help us overcome our unbelief. Belief - or

When Nehemiah heard bad news, he prayed. After praying, he developed a plan. Nehemiah 1 is a blend of prayer and action. . . Why is prayer so important? Here are the four shortest reasons I know. . . . Prayer forces me to leave the situation with God; it makes me wait. Secondly, prayer clears my vision. . . When you first face a situation, is it foggy? Prayer will "burn through". Your vision will clear so you can see through God's eyes. Thirdly, prayer quiets my heart. I cannot worry and pray at the same time. . . Fourthly, prayer activates my faith. After praying I am more prone to trust God. . . Prayer sets faith on fire. Don't just fill the margins in your Bible with words and thoughts about ways a leader prays. Do it!. . . Pray! Prayer was the first major step Nehemiah took in his journey to effective leadership. . . . . . The Lord is the Specialist we need for those uncrossable and impossible experiences. He delights in accomplishing what we can

I believe that many of us go through life sucking on pacifiers. Oh, we don't see them because they're in our bank. Or they're parked in our garage. Or we live in them. Don't put your hope into things that change - relationships, money, talents, beauty, even health. Set your sights on the one thing that can never change: trust in your heavenly Father. (God desires us to need Him, to rely on Him, to depend on Him, and to trust Him in everything.) Little He cares whether you've been. . . all that matters is your trust in Him. Father, help us today to maintain our promise of faithfulness to you, (especially) in times when we're not surrounded by people who agree with us and encourage and understand our devotion to You. Give us great courage as we face the challenges of each new day. -From The Inspirational Study Bible by Max Lucado But store your treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and ste

Ever have trouble determining God's will for your future? You are not alone. "Do I move to Mobile or Minnesota?" "Do I retire at IBM or a clerk at Sears?" "Do I marry or stay single?" The questions are endless. One follows another. Every new responsibility brings new decisions. "What college should my son attend?" . . . How in the world do we know what God wants? Do we set out a fleece? Seek advice? Pray? Read the Bible? All these are right yet there is one decision that must be made first. (Hand on, it's a touch one.) To know God's will, we must totally surrender to God's will. Our tendency is to make God's decision for Him. . . Don't go to God with options and expect Him to choose one of your preferences. Go to Him with empty hands - no hidden agendas, no crossed fingers, nothing behind your back. Go to Him with a willingness to do whatever He says. If you surrender your will, then He will "equip you with ever

Do not be ashamed to serve others because of your love for Jesus Christ, or to appear poor in the world's eyes. Do not count on your own strength; trust God. Do what you can, and God will supply the difference. Take glory neither in money, if you have some, nor in influential friends, but in God who gives you everything and above all wants to give you Himself. Avoid boasting about the size or beauty of your body, which a little illness can disfigure or destroy. Have no pride in your native wit and talent; that would displease God who gave you every good thing that you naturally possess. Reject the thought that you are better than anyone else. If you think such haughty thoughts, God (who knows what is in you) will consider you worse than they. Pride about our good deeds is pointless. God has his own ideas regarding what is good, and He does not always agree with us. If there is anything good about you, believe better things of others. This will keep you humble. It will

Often in the past, Lord, I have come to thee with a heavy heart and a burdened life. And thou answered my prayers and graciously lifted the burden from me. Yet with strange perversion, I still refuse to leave my burdens with thee. Always I gather them up - those heavy bundles of fears and anxieties - and shoulder them again . - Peter Marshall Sally Clarkson writes that she found herself weary, pondering alternatives regarding her son's living situation and wondering if all of life was going to be this way. "Could nothing ever work out smoothly and easily?" (p. 108) I have often wondered the same thing. Sometimes everything about life seems difficult ALL THE TIME. As Sally read about Adam and Eve in the garden she saw how Satan had tempted them to not believe in God's goodness and provision. It made her see that Satan might also be involved in tempting her to disbelieve God's provision in her current situation with her son. She felt the question being asked of

In Warren Wiersbe’s book “ The Strategy of Satan ”, he follows his discussion on the strategies Satan uses with a practical look at how we can live by faith. “Everybody in this world lives by faith”; but not everyone has the same “object of faith”. As followers of Christ, our object of faith is God the Father; He is the One in whom we put our trust. This is why Satan does his best to attack “the believer’s faith.” (p. 89) Hebrews 11 gives us a long list of those who lived by faith. We may wonder how we too can know that we are living by faith. Wiersbe writes, “It is so easy for us to be fooled by our own feelings (“But it seemed right to do it!”) or by the circumstances around us, or by Satan and his demonic powers.” (p. 91) Warren Weirsbe gives us four “tests” we can apply to our “decisions and actions to determine whether or not (we) are walking by faith.” (p. 91) The first thing to ask ourselves is “Am I doing this for the glory of God, or just to please myself?” (p. 91) “Faith alw

Our church bookstore recommends a book each month. For the month of October it was Warren Wiersbe's book "The Strategy of Satan - How to Detect and Defeat Him". I'm halfway through it and have been learning a lot. The first part of the book discusses four people from the Old Testament who had a direct confrontation with Satan. From these experiences we learn "the targets Satan aims at in your life; the weapons he uses to attack you; the purposes that he wants to achieve; and the defenses God has provided for you." The first person Wiersbe writes about is Eve. From her encounter we learn that Satan the deceiver targets our minds with lies. His purpose is to make us ignorant of God's will for our life. God has given us His inspired Word to defend ourselves against these attacks. The second person to be discussed is Job. Here we see that Satan the destroyer targets our body with suffering. The desire of Satan is to make us impatient with God'