Christians, keep on standing as a light for this world. God is going to use all of us in amazing ways and I am so excited for each of you! Life with God is the greatest adventure of all, and the road for me has really just begun. I wish you all the greatest success and happiness in Christ!

Love,

Katie

As I reflect back on my college years, I can’t help but smile. My life has changed drastically in the past four years and I have never been happier. I have been so blessed by God.. more than I deserve. This past week we had the pastor whose church our church was birthed out of come speak to us. He is such an amazing man in the Lord and lives with so much freedom. He is so happy and understands God’s love for him in a way that I hope to someday understand. Anyways, he preached mostly about faith and hearing from God and it really ministered to me.

One thing that he said that spoke to me was when he was talking about God’s promises for us. He said that we should be just as sure that what God promises will happen than we are sure of facts that are known to be true. I had never thought of it that way. When God speaks a promise to us, we should take it as a fact. We shouldn’t go back and forth wondering if it will happen, or if He really said it.

I don’t know about you, but that is hard for me. When I read my bible and see a promise in there for God’s followers, sometimes it is difficult for me to believe. Does God really love me with an everlasting love? Does He really see me as perfect and holy? I question these types of things often. But, I’m not going to do that anymore. This week, I made a vow that I will not doubt Him. I have comitted to believing Him always, no matter how crazy the promise may seem to me. I want to grow and change and walk in God’s love more confidently, and that requires faith. Therefore, I am praying right now for more faith. I want the kind of faith that Jesus talks about in Matthew 17:20, when He says:

“if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you“

God doesn’t require perfect faith from us. He knows that we are imperfect so that would be impossible. But He does require faith. Here it is saying that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible to you. Do you know how small a mustard seed is? Very small. God knows that it is hard for us to have faith, but He makes up for our lack of it through His strength and grace. That does not mean that we are off the hook, though. We still need to do our part. We need to realize that faith is one of the most important things in our walk with Him and without it, we cannot please God. But we also need to realize that when we fall short, it’s okay! We learn from our failures and grow from them.

I am at a place where my lack of faith has been exposed to me. I have failed. It is one of the million times I will. But, I am SO thankful for this failure because it has made me see that I need to change. And with change comes freedom and maturity. I am so excited for this time of growth. I cannot wait to come out of this, more in love with God and living with more faith than before. I want to be able to believe His promises fully. I want to be able to hear that God thinks I’m holy and pure and BELIEVE IT. Who doesn’t? We all want to feel loved and desired, and all of that can be fulfilled through the Lord. We just need to have the faith to believe it.

It is sad for me to see people not really understanding this. So often we do not have the faith to believe God loves us, so we go out searching for other things to take the place of that void. From there comes ungodly relationships with the opposite sex that can really ruin us. If you are trying to find fulfillment in a relationship, know that it will NEVER work. The ONLY person that can fill this void is God.

One of the hardest thing for me to watch is girls or guys who are so hurt and feel so unloved that they run to other people to feel better. They think “if this guy will notice me, then I’ll feel better about myself” or “if this girl will love me, then I’ll feel loved”. NOT TRUE. Do you realize that God is all you need? Do you realize that if you could have the faith to believe He loves you more than life itself you wouldn’t need to search out love in other places? You wouldn’t need it. I am not saying that God will not give you the perfect man/woman in His timing, because I know He will. What I am saying is that we should all first have the faith to understand His love for us, and then go from there.

Dating is such a touchy subject for many people. Even Christians today do not understand the seriousness of it and they often give their hearts away when they really shouldn’t. The bible is clear that we must guard our hearts at all times. Christians, especially you young women, watch over your hearts. Don’t give your emotions and feelings over to just anyone. I challenge you to give this area of your life up to God. Give Him control in your love life. As weird as that may sound, I have watched numerous happy couples do this and have seen the fruit of that. They both made decisions to seek the Lord for their future husbands/wives and God blessed them because of that. Going around dating anyone and everyone can hurt you in the end. God knows what is best for us, so why wouldn’t we want to trust Him in this area also? His thoughts and ways are “higher than ours” (Isaiah 55: 9) which means that His plan for this area in our lives is better than we could ever imagine or plan ourselves. I don’t know about you, but that excites me.

I feel like this post has been a ton of rambling. I guess there’s just a lot on my heart right now and I can’t exactly formualte it. But what I want you to get out of what I’m saying is just have the faith to understand God’s love for you. Don’t go searching it out in other places. Believe He loves you and believe that is all you need. And most of all, guard your heart. This world is full of lust and sin, and Christians, we all need to be careful. Search your heart this week and ask yourself if you are doing all you can to guard it. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Growing up I always had dreams and aspirations of becoming famous or making a ton of money or doing something extravagant. It was all about ME. It was “I want to do this” and “I want to be like that”, I never once took a step back and thought “What does God want me to do?” Granted, I wasn’t even a Christian at that point, but I know that all the things I wanted to be were selfish. I wanted to be the best. I didn’t care about what that meant I had to do to other people, they were not my concern. Thankfully, God completely changed my heart when I gave my life to Him. The selfishness and greediness slowly started fading and one day I just didn’t want to be those things anymore. I didn’t care about being rich or famous, I just wanted what God had in store for me. So, I began to ask Him what He wanted me to do.

The more I prayed about it, the more I really felt called to go into the ministry and help other people. Initially, the idea of it didn’t exactly appeal to me. I remember when I first started thinking that was what God wanted me to do, I prayed and prayed asking Him to give me any other job in the world but that one. I didn’t want to do it. But as time went on and I softened my heart towards His desires, I simply prayed that He would change my heart and give me a desire to do that. Well, sure enough, He did. Suddenly, there was nothing more I wanted for my future. I couldn’t wait to someday go into the ministry. My mind totally transformed, but it was only after I came to a place of complete surrender.

Anyways, I found out a while back that it might not be an option for me to go into the ministry right after I graduated. That is when the worrying began. I went from not wanting to do that job at all, to wanting it so bad it almost hurt. Not knowing what was going to happen was hard. But I knew that God had promised me that I would one day go into the ministry so I was willing to wait if that was His plan. This period of waiting was actually one of the best things that has really ever happened to me. It changed me and it also brought out a lot of bad things that were inside of me(such as mistrust in God and fear). Had I not gone through that experience, I might not have been able to see as quickly the areas in my life that need changing.

See, that is exactly what God does often times. He brings us through trials and tribulations to expose what is in us. Another word for this is called “the wilderness” which the bible refers to often. When one goes through the “wilderness” it is a time of spiritual dryness or trial. When you are going through it, it can often be tough and uncomfortable. It happens to all of us. Think back in your life to times that were particularly tough. When you are going through the wilderness, you can have two responses. One, you can become overwhelmed or upset and completely give up, or two, you can be thankful that God is brining you through this(because the bible says He doesn’t give us anything we cannot handle(1Cor.10:1-13) and that He is maturing you in the process.

Philippians 1:6 says this: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus”. This is one of my very favorite verses in the bible. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read it. What is means to me is that what God started in us He will finish. He will never leave us just the way we are, or take us through a tough time and not bring us out on the other side, better and stronger for it. That is something that we can all cling to when we are “in the wilderness”. We can stand in confidence knowing that He will finish the good work in us that He started. I know this happened for me, and it will for you too. If you are going through the wilderness, be encouraged that God is doing a wonderful work in you right now. He is strengthening, maturing, and delivering you. You will come out better because of it. Don’t give up when you face trials, know that it will all be okay. God loves you. The bible also says that the Lord loves who He reproves(or disciplines), meaning that if He is changing you or “disciplining” you in some sort of way, it is because He loves you. He wants the best for all of us. I hope that all of you will understand that and believe it for your own life.

Here is a video of Hillsong singing one of my favorite songs. It is called “Mighty to Save”. It’s awesome and the lyrics are amazing and so true. Watch it, and have a wonderful weekend!

Graduation can be a very unsettling time for people. It is extremely exciting, but also scary. I feel like thus far, my whole life has been pretty much planned out. I went to elementary school and high school, then I went to college. College was a little scary at first, but soon I was able to get into a routine and always knew that I had at least four more years of a ‘planned out’ life ahead. But after that, everything is up in the air. We all have to go our seperate ways and figure out what to do with the rest of our lives. There are no more “requirements” that we must fulfill and no itinerary that we need to follow. It is up to us. We call the shots. That can be a scary thing after having the shots called for us for so long.

Luckily, as Christians, we have God to direct us where He wants us to go. I know without a doubt that I have heard God speak to me what He wants me to do when I graduate, and therefore I am going to wait on His timing and allow Him to work in my life however He wants. So, I shouldn’t worry, right? Right. Easier said than done, however. If only we could just believe what we know to be true without doubting, life would be so much more simple.

James 1:6 says: “”But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” Although it is often times so much easier to doubt than to just believe, we cannot let ourselves go there. We need to believe. Doubting is sin. And not only is it unpleasing to God, but it can really ruin us. All the fear and the worry and the anxiety comes from our inability to believe God loves us. If we fully believed He did, we would not worry for a second. We would know that He ”causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him” (Romans 8: 28).  The opposite of belief is doubt, and the opposite of faith is fear. When you get down to it, doubt and fear are the reasons why we cannot find rest in God.

So, what is causing you to not be able to rest in God? What are you worried and anxious about? No matter what it is, know that everything is going to be great. God loves you. He loves you so much and thinks about you all the time. He is watching over you every second of the day and knows your whereabouts at all times. He knows your future. He knows how everything is going to work out. And He has a plan for you. Before you were even created, He had a perfect plan for your life. Why, then, should you worry?

The bible commands us to rest in the Lord. Here are a few encouraging passages in the bible about the subject.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)

“Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.” (Psalm 55:22)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

One thing that we need to learn is that we will never find complete rest or peace apart from God. If you try finding it in friends, or family, or whatever it may be, it will not work. The only way that we can find peace and rest is when we find it in the Lord. John 14:27 says: ” Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid”. The peace that Jesus is talking about here is not a ‘natural’ type of peace. It is the peace of knowing that we have a place in Heaven and that God loves us. When we can believe that God loves us, and not doubt, we will find tremendous rest. There is really nothing to worry about. If you have placed your life in God’s hands,  believe that He will come through for you. Believe that He will never dissapoint you. Have faith that He cares for you more than you could ever understand.

Life can be tough. We sometimes go through moments that are scary and uncertain, but it is in these moments that God’s power and provision can really shine forth. When we are at our weakest, He is at His strongest. I don’t know where you are at right now. I don’t know how you are feeling and if you are worried or hopeless. But I do no that no matter where you are, there is always an opportunity for a miracle. God is the God of the impossible. Nothing is impossible for Him. So no matter what you’re going through, just know that with Him, all things are possible and He can give you a miracle at any time. Just ask, without doubting, and it will happen. If it is in accordance with His will, anything can happen. He is not constrained like we are.

This weekend, or even right now, I exhort you to pray about what you are worried over. Ask God to give you peace and rest in this area. Pray that He would come through for you and that there would be a miracle. He can do it. Give Him that worry. Tell Him that you are trusting in Him and you are going to believe He will cause it all to work out. He loves you and He wants to come through for you, just let Him.

If you  want to know the exact story, check out:

Matthew 25-28

Mark 14-16

Luke 22-24

John 17-20

I tend to read Matthew and John, but all four are excellent.

Instead of tell the whole story over again to you all, I wanted to comment on a specific part of it. I want to look at when Jesus says ”It is finished” in John 19:30. This is not usually the most commonly talked about phrase, but the Lord really revealed something great to me when thinking about what to post today and I thought I would share it.

This past weekend at church, our pastor shared a story about these crazy dogs that his neighbors have. They started out as seemingly innocent, just a little bit wild and not trained. However, as time went on and they became more aquainted with him, they started getting violent. When he would go out to get the mail they would run over to him and bite him. He found out that his wife was pregnant a while back (they now have an adorable little boy), and one day,  as he was making the walk to his mailbox, he saw the dogs coming and got this vision of his unborn son following him out there and the dogs coming to attack him. When he got that vision, he immediately knew in his heart that if those dogs were to try to attack his son, he would step in front of him and do everything in his power to keep them from him, even if that meant getting beat up by the dogs in the process. This probably doesn’t make any sense to you right now, but what our pastor was demonstrating was God’s love for us and how He goes to great lengths to protect us from our sin.

See, the man in our pastor’s story is analagous with God, and the dogs are representative of sin. Easter is such a special holiday because it represents God’s love for us just like this story does. He foresaw our sin and the damage that it would bring to us, and because He loved us so much, He decided to do anything in His power to keep us away from it. That is why He sent His Son down to die for us. He wants to seperate us from our sin because He knows how harmful it is. He see’s us as precious sons and daughters and would never want anything to hurt us. God will always stand in the gap for us to keep us from sin. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, He stood before all the sin that the world had committed and was yet to committ, and was “beaten up” in order to keep us away from it. He took the pain and beating for us because He loved us and He was perfectly obedient to His Father.

But there is another side to this story. If we want God to stand in the gap for us and fight against the devil’s schemes in our lives, we need to do our part, too.  If Jesus had decided to choose not to obey God and die on that cross, imagine what this world would be like. We need to learn from His obedience and immitate it. We have the ability to be obedient because He was first. When we see sin in our life, we need to turn from it. God will do everything in His power to get us to the place of surrender, and we must not fight that. Think about the story my pastor told, then imagine yourself as being his young child and imagine God coming to your rescue. He would stop at nothing to protect you and He desires that everyone would give Him the place to do that in their lives.

I was encouraged by the phrase “It is done” because it again shows the finality of what Jesus did on the cross and the way that it affects us today. We can overcome sin and any hardship because “it is done”. Jesus overcame it all when He died on the cross for us. By coming into this hope, we are allowing God to be able to protect us from sin. That is the gift that He gave us when He sacraficed His precious Son on our behalf. There has never been a greater act of love shown and there never will be. He is our shield and our protector and will always stand before the “dogs” to keep us from harm.

Here is a video from the Passion of the Christ that demonstrates what Jesus did for us. Watch it and remember that if you were the only one living, He still would have come down and gone through all of this just to save you. He loves us each that much.

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.Then I said ‘Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth’. But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say “I am a youth” Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 1:5-8)

Here is another encouraging verse:

“No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.  Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5-9)

Simply meditating on these verses gives me a hope that I can be courageous and rise up in might because God desires to give that to me. This is what happened on Spring break. I was able to talk with many girls, and one of them gave their life to God. This didn’t happen because I did something right, it happened because God’s might and power worked through me.

The most important thing I was reminded of this past week was that I cannot do anything in my own strength. Heck, I cannot even breath in my own strength. It is God who puts breath into my body and sustains me every day. How, then, could I expect to do anything serious like sharing the gospel with people if I cannot even stay alive on my own? I need God every second of the day. Not just in tough times. Not just in trials. Every second. We all do. Whether we know it or not, it’s true. And everyone will one day see that when Jesus comes back again.

If you are reading this and you have not made the decision to give your life to God, I want you to consider a few things. What are you doing here(and I don’t mean on this site, I mean on this earth)? How did you get here? Why are you here? Believe it or not, you are here because God created you and had a plan for you even before you took your first breath on this earth. You are still alive because He has something for you. He wants to know you. He loved you enough to create you and He doesn’t make mistakes. You aren’t a mistake. No one is. God creates everyone with a purpose and whether or not you fulfill that purpose is up to you. Just know that if you are still here, there is still time to get right with God. There is still hope. Do you want to come into that hope? Do you want to know the God who knows every thought and hurt and detail of your life? Do you want to know the God who loves you more than life itself and sacraficed everything in order to have a relationship with you?

This all might seem strange. I know. It can be hard to believe that there is a God who knows you and loves you when there is so much pain in this world. I remember thinking myself that the world was too messsed up for a perfect God to be the Creator of it. But you must realize that all the horror of this world is not God’s fault. He gives everyone a free will, and that free will is what causes such terrible things to happen. But that free will is also what can bring us to Him. We can choose to follow after Him with our free will.

When I chose to live for God rather than myself and this world, it was the scariest/most amazing decision I ever made. I am not the same person I once was. When you choose to give up your life, He creates a new and better one for you. I have seen this happen and am still amazed by it each day. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is REAL and that He loves me. There is nothing in this world that is more comforting. And there is nothing in this world that brings about more might and courage in me than when I remember this. That is how we rise up in might and courage. We remember that all things are possible through God,and that He loves His children. He will never forsake us or let us down. He is perfect, so it is not in His nature to do anything imperfect.

I challenge you to think about your life. Where do you think you are going when you die? Have you fully surrendered to God? These are important questions that everyone must ask themselves. If you haven’t made that decision, know that a life living for God is the most exciting/amazing/adventurous/fulfilling life you could have. I once heard a pastor say that it takes more faith not to believe in God than it does to believe in Him. I think that is totally true. If you don’t believe God created you, then how are you here? Think about it.

I am taking 18 upper division credits right now, and going into it, I knew this was going to be a challenging semester. My advisor even told me I shouldn’t do it, but I knew that I had the Lord’s grace and mercy on my side so it would all work out. Meditating on the scriptures ”And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) and the ever popular “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phillipians 4:13) gave me faith that I could accomplish anything through the Lord’s power, and not my own.

So anyways, here I am. My last midterms EVER are completed and I am ready for Florida. I am going down to the USF campus with some people from my church to preach the gospel to the students and it is going to be great! I love getting the oppurtunity to reach out to girls who were just as lost as I once was. I know the Lord is going to do amazing things in me and (hopefully) through me on this trip and I will definitely let you know how it goes on here when I get back.

So goodbye for the next two weeks, blog. And for any of you who may be reading this, I hope you have a wonderful Spring Break!

But how exactly do we get faith? The verse that I always turn to comes from the book of Romans. It states:  “Now faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God“(Rom 10:17). Two sure ways you can get faith is through reading your bible, and hearing God speak to you. And yes, God does speak to you. He is constantly speaking, we just have trouble hearing. But when you get to a place where you can hear Him speak to your heart, it produces tremendous faith(and hearing Him speak does not mean you have to audibly hear some loud, grand voice). The same thing goes for reading your Bible. There are numerous verses on comfort and compassion and anything you might need to hear when you are lacking in faith. You simply need to just open it.

Both hearing from God through the power of the Holy Spirit and reading the Bible are meant to edify and strengthen us. If you do not have an intimate, deep relationship with the Lord where you can really hear His voice, or if you do not read you bible, it will be hard to really rise up in faith.

Getting a little more personal here, I have been struggling with rising up in faith in a certain area in my life. I am graduating soon, and I often find myself fearing for the future. What will happen? Will I be sucessful? What if this happens? or What if I can’t do this? and so on. Questions like these have been filling my thoughts. Because I have placed my future fully in God’s hands, I find myself sometimes wanting to take it back and take matters into my own hands. I want to be able to understand and pick apart every little detail of it. But that is not okay.

I did recently find a place of repentence for it, but it definitely takes faith to walk out that repentence every day. The Lord has just be reasurring me recently that He loves me, and I have nothing to worry about. My future was decided and planned even before I was born. Why, then, should I fear for a second about it? I can honestly say that I am really beginning to rise up in faith and believe  that God has a wonderful purpose for me. I do not need to see it, or even fully understand it because it is in God’s control and that is all that matters. This new faith has given me so much hope and happiness when I think about my future. Here are some verses that have particularly spoken to me. I thought they might help those of you who may be in a similar situation.

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light as your judgement as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him..” (Psalm 37:4-7)

“Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them My salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”(Isaiah 40:28-31)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“Do not worry, then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’. For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own” (Matthew 6:31-34)

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7)

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

“Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith. . . . And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5: 7-10)

God has an incredible future planned for all of us. It is one that is better than even we ourselves could have dreamed up. But the truth is, we cannot inherit this plan until we give up our own one’s to Him. When we decide to take control of our future, we in turn are denying God’s perfect plan. And who wants to do that? I know it can be hard surrendering something that is so valuable to you. I can say from experience that it is extremely tough. But the reward is a life full of happiness and joy.

And lastly, this has nothing to do with what I was just saying, but here is an awesome music video(well, the music video is okay, but the song is great). Whoever said all Christian music is boring was totally wrong and this song proves it:)

The bible is filled with verses that proclaim God’s love for His Children. This post will be dedicated to my favorite verses on God’s love. Really meditating on these verses and believing that they are for me has changed my relationship with the Lord. When I first became a Christian, I had a hard time believing that God loved me. I had done so many terrible things, how could He? He is perfect, and I was so far from it that I thought there was no way that I deserved to be loved by Him. And the truth was, I didn’t deserve it. No one does. What we really deserve is death(“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”Rom.6:23) but since God loves us, He did not want that to happen. His love conquered our sin(and death) when He sent Jesus to die for us.

So just a word of encouragement to you believers out there: Know that we do not deserve God’s love, but He still loves us. His love for us is perfect and will never fail. He will never let us down if we trust fully in Him. He has wonderful plans for our futures and wants to bless us abundantly because of this love. No matter what we do, He will always love us( but we still need to remember that there are consequences for our sin, and it does separate us from Christ if we let it get in the way of a relationship with Him). And lastly, Christians, remember that God created man so that He could have a relationship with him. The best way to show your love in return for His is to pursue an intimate, deep relationship with Him. Our God is a jealous God. He wants our attention and He wants us to want to know Him more. He gives us a choice, but desperately hopes that our choice would be to know Him more and forsake all that stands in the way of that. What have you chosen? Are there things standing in the way of a deepening relationship with the Lord?

Here are the verses that I turn to most when I want to be encouraged in God’s love and His abundant provision:

“Your lovingkindess, O Lord, extends to the Heaves, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies” (Psalm 36:5)

“But You, O Lord, are compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness”  (Psalm 86:15)

“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3).

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). <<I love this one! He rejoices over us with singing! How amazing is that?!>>

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)”

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love” (John 15:9).

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord “(Romans 8:35-39).

“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5).<<Amen to that, God’s grace is such a precious gift>>

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

The last verse is really the one that encourages me the most. The greatest display of love ever shown to this world was when God sent His only Son to die for our sins. Meditate on this video to understand God’s love for you. Remember as you watch it that if you were the only person on this earth that needed to have their sin’s atoned for, Jesus still would have done it. That is love, and it is all we need.

“(1)Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has seized from sin, (2)so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. (3) For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries”

“(19) Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,(20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies,
(21) envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Do these sins sound familiar to you? I’m guessing if you have spent even a tiny bit of time on a college campus they do. What encourages me in the first passage is the fact that since Christ suffered in the flesh for us and overcame all sin, we now have the ability to do the same thing. It is not always easy. We will have to suffer. But suffering for the sake of overcoming sin brings about bountiful rewards and blessings upon our lives. Psalm 1:1-6 says:

“Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.”

This passage should encourage all of us to continue to live a life of purity and righteousness. The Word is clear when it says that the ways of those who resist sin will prosper. Contrastingly, the ways of the sinner will be ruin and destruction. Sin does take its toll on a person eventually. However, there is hope in knowing that if we diligently persevere and flee from sin, our lives will prosper. We will not end up unhappy, unloved, or hopeless. This is one of the 7,000 promises in the bible that we can cling to. If we avoid sin and live life for the Lord, we will overwhelmingly prosper.

So, how exactly do we overcome sin and temptation? Let me start off by saying something my Pastor always tells us: Temptation is not sin. It is how you respond to to that temptation that matters to the Lord. So, first, in order to overcome sin we must realize that we will be tempted. When we are, we must flee from this temptation. Second, we must turn to God. He is the One who strengthens us and enables us to overcome. We can’t do it without Him. If we are living according to the flesh, it is impossible to flee from sin. We must draw near to God’s spirit, putting aside our natural desires, and He will help us(Galatians 5:16-17)

Third, we must know that God doesn’t tempt us beyond what we can handle. 1Corinthians 10:13 states:  ”No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Remember that the next time you are tempted to sin. The Lord has confidence in you that you can overcome this. And when you need help(which you will) He is always there to come to our rescue. This is an awesome video I have watched dozens of times that depicts the way in which sin can so deeply affect us and draw us away from our First Love.

Sin is serious. It does separate us from God, just like it was displayed here in the video. If we cannot overcome sin, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Now, don’t get condemned here. We all sin and no one is perfect. What 1Peter4:1-3 and Galatians 5:19-21 is telling us is that we need to continually be striving for purity, holiness, righteousness, and, in a nutshell, to be more like Christ. He sees our hearts and knows when are are trying with everything in us to do this. It is when we are hard-hearted and unwilling to change that brings forth a problem.

If there is some type of sin issue that you know needs to be dealt with, talk to the Lord about it. Tell Him you need His help. He died so that we would not be bound to sin. Once you come to Him with godly sorrow and you repent, He will forget all about that sin and you will be washed clean. Give it up to Him. He loves you and wants to heal you. And that kind of love and healing is only a prayer away.