Sunflower Faith

   
²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. (Matthew 16:24-27, New King James Version)

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  ¹ Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. ² And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
(Genesis 2:1-3, New King James Version)

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Ephesians 1:7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; KJV

The blood of Jesus! There’s nothing like the blood of Jesus when it comes to cleansing our soul from sin and guilt. As much as the blood and the forgiveness of sin have been preached, Christians still wrestle with receiving forgiveness. It’s hard for them to realize that their heavenly Father truly loves them that much. If you ask them if they have the Holy Spirit residing in their hearts, without batting an eye, their answer a resounding yes.

This is a clear indication that the blood has been applied, because the Holy Spirit can’t enter a vessel until the blood goes before Him.

The Holy Spirit wasn’t sent to enter man until after Jesus gave His life’s blood upon the cross. Forty days after His resurrection, he told the disciples that He was going to leave them, but they wouldn’t be left alone. He went on to tell them that the Father would send the promise of the Holy Spirit as a sign of His covenant with us.

The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed a child of God. Another way to look at the struggle of so many is to address the faith, or the lack of faith… which gives us the ability to receive and walk in God’s forgiveness.

Their focus is more on their sin than on the faith to receive forgiveness.

There’s only one reason I can think of that would make a person feel unlovable and that’s unworthiness.

To this I would remind you of John 3:16, that God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

This passage tells those who might struggle with their fleshly identity how much God values us in our fallen state.

 Through the blood of Jesus, the Father doesn’t see where we’ve been but where He’s taking us.

We are complete in Christ Jesus.

 I never know what the reason is for a particular devotion… all I can do is obey.

If this helps you to receive forgiveness, know that it was intended for you. You’re special in the sight of your heavenly Father.

Don’t allow the opinions of anyone else to distort what God has already said about you.

You are accepted in the Beloved. You can’t get a higher affirmation than that. So I will call you blessed and highly favored!!

From World Harvest Church North

” Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. “-2Timothy 2:15

Sunday Praise and Worship is a weekly meme that I had started but due to well…life, was unable to keep up with.

As I find myself refocusing and repriortizing the things in my life, the biggest thing was finding the much needed time, to spend with our Father in Heaven and His word.

There were and have been many things that have come up, of a personal reflection, that reminded me so much that of all the things we shouldn’t neglect in our lives, living and studying His word is one of them along with taking care of our family.

I’ve taken the time to create the following bookmark, that I pray and hope, I can have prepared to offer to you, Gentle Readers, as well, so that you can find time to spend in His word.

Something that I have used and discovered through another website, has been the,”Life Journal” which is a very insightful method of reading God’s word and encouraging the habit of spending time, each day with His word.

I highly suggested looking into incorporating the “Life Journal” in your scriptural reading, to help encourage yourself, to read God’s word each day.

If you, like me, have felt a “Spiritual Famine” in your life, this is one of many ways to bring life back into studying’ God’s word.

It is with prayer and hope that this simple bookmark can help encourage you to start reading your bible, or if you have thought of reading the bible as a whole, to be one of many ways that are out there to encourage you to start today.

Bookmark

To participate in Sunday’s Praise and Worship just add the Sunday Praise and Worship logo on your post using the following:

<br /><a href=”http://sunflowerfaith.com” mce_href=”http://sunflowerfaith.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/sunflowerfaith/worshipslide242.jpg” mce_src=”http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii186/sunflowerfaith/worshipslide242.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Photobucket” /></a><br /><br>Come to Sunflower Faith to join in with Sunday Praise and Worship.

Please don’t forget to link back here to Sunflower Faith and add your post link to the “Mr. Linky” that will be up Sunday Morning so others can come by your site and share in your “Sunday Praise and Worship”.

Hope to see you Sunday!

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

The most dangerous thing to be is a perfectionist.

Being a perfectionist it’s easy to fall in the trap of giving up too soon, because hey, what you’re doing is going to fail anyway or it’s because of “fill in the reason” you can’t get something to work or go your way or you’re wrong anyway.

Allowing this to overwhelm your thought process, endangers your spiritual growth because it’s easy to feel like, “Well you fail, it’s not worth trying” or “If this happens and that happens, THEN I will go to church or read my bible or…..”

The trouble is that it’s because we allow ourselves to be imperfect,to make mistakes, to be wrong, can we really grow and part that also includes being honest with ourselves about how we really are and that often times, what causes a distance between us and our Heavenly Father…is well…us.

People who fail-well..truth is..they are usually the ones who learn the most and what defines them from failing is that they use their failures to keep moving forward.

They figure out where they went wrong, learn from it and move forward. The same with our walk.

No one is stopping us from having a relationship with our Heavenly Father and our imperfections doesn’t stop our Heavenly Father from wanting to have a relationship with us…so don’t just give up and accept that there is no hope or time.

Get up.

Read your bible.

Find a bible-believing church and don’t just hide behind a remote and think that is enough. Our Heavenly Father WANTS you to succeed in building a relationship with Him. He’s given you the tools to win the prize…use it.

Everybody fails. It’s part of the process that leads us to maturity and success. Most successful entrepreneurs have been through a number of failures in life, but they usually don’t think of their failures as defeats. They think of them as lessons.

My failures have served to help many people who are also experiencing failure in their lives. God will always have a redeeming value in our failures if we let Him reveal His life through them.

If you hope to succeed, learn everything you can from your failures.-OS Hillman for TGIF devotionals

“

“Isaiah 55:8. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.”.

I want to but I can’t.

I want to but what will people think.

I want to but I don’t want to lose my friends.

I want to…..

I want to….

I want to….

How often do you feel this way about your faith and just even sharing your faith with others?

How often do you find yourself either second guessing yourself or censoring yourself because you are more afraid of what people will think if you talk about your faith then you are afraid of what our Heavenly Father would think.

Being a Christian in modern times, is a challenge because we find ourselves under pressure to conform to the world and what the world wants and a struggle with living for and with and by what our Heavenly Father wants which unfortunately in many times, translates to unpopular opinion.

I chuckled as I read this passage from a devotional,

”

As Christians, we also wish to discover God’s will for our lives. Surely He is already laying the groundwork for our lofty aspirations in life. Then, when things don’t quite meet our expectations, we are perturbed. And if they take a dire turn into disaster, we are perplexed. What went wrong? We missed the point.

The thing is, God’s will is just that – God’s will. He tends to do thing His way, in His time, according to His own plan, and with His own purposes in mind. God often ignores our agenda! Over and over the Scriptures bring up an important theme: “My ways are not like your ways!” Sometimes we need a gentle reminder that He’s not like us”

Trouble is that many times, we try to box God in a way that makes us comfortable or feel in control, instead of just GIVING Him that control that is His not ours and having faith that no matter what, all things work out to His glory and is to be for His glory,not ours.

The thing is that we have to learn to step down and remember that even if we are at work, we don’t go into the bosses’ office and run things, we let our boss do his job and the same with our Heavenly Father.

He knows our hearts better than we know our hearts, but when we find ourselves willfully hiding His work or our walk from Him, is that not a display a lack of faith in well…Him and if we go..okay,”I’m going to pray to You, but I’m going to be in control”, isn’t that kinda trying to tell Him what to do.

Human nature is that inevitable we try to take care of ourselve, but we have to remember that once we accept God’s grace, it’s ALL Him and not just part of the time or on Sunday, but ALL of the time and a lot of time, it’s not going to be a comfy feeling.

It’s going to be a ride on a roller coaster but we can’t forget that He has HIS hands on the control and HE is not going to let go.

Just because sometimes things don’t work out the way, WE want it to, doesn’t mean God has failed us or hasn’t heard us…We have to remember that He has already seen the end of the line before we do and HE does know what is better for us.

Like children, it’s easy to want to pout and throw a tantrum and rebel, but that’s how we got here in the first place and if we are going to say, “God,I’m going to let You do what YOU need to do,”  we have to hold our end of the bargain,take a deep breath, grab His hand and just trust Him.

Heavenly Father, I ask that you give us more strength and discernment to trust You and Your word and instead of trying to compromise Your word to fit our lives that we compromise our lives to fit YOUR word.

Lord, give us maturity and strength that if we are going to walk the walk, that we are going to do more than just talk the walk, but show it in our lives and in our trust in You.

Gentle Friend, if you are finding yourself on the balance beam, ask yourself, what are ways you can live a life that reflects God more and less about making compromises just because you want to keep friends, live in the world or to be in control.

God doesn’t want you to be a hermit, but He also doesn’t want you to feel like you are falling either.

What are ways you can share on how to strive to grow and mature as a Christian?

Be not discouraged because of your soul's enemies. Are ye troubled with
thoughts, fears, doubts, imaginations, reasonings? Yea, do ye see, yet,
much in you unsubdued to the power of life? Oh! Do not fear it; do not
look at it, as to be discouraged by it; but look to Him! Look up to the
power which is over all their strength; wait for the descendings of the
power upon you; abide in faith of the Lord's help, and wait in patience
till the Lord arise; and see if His arm do not scatter what yours could
not. So, be still before Him, and in stillness, believe in His name;
yea, enter not into the hurryings of the enemy, though they fill the
soul; for, there is yet somewhat to which they cannot enter, from whence
patience, faith, and hope, will spring up in you, even in the midst of
all they can do.-Isaac Penington
qhpress.org/texts/penington/

Sounds like something we can all use in these days and time.

We live in times of uncertainity and questions; our economy is in turmoil, we don’t know if we want to know what will happen tomorrow, but through it all, though the storm is raging high waves around us, Our Heavenly Father is in the center of it all and saying, “Be still”.

It seems easy sometimes to go, God can’t solve this but the reality is that He has and He will.

He has seen far worse and far better than we ever can, so what seems a storm to us, is but a raindrop to Him.

In the midst of lifes turmoil and an uncertain times, share how or if you feel this draws you closer to our Heavenly Father and His word and if not, what ways do you think, you can do for yourself and your relationship with Jesus Christ, to “Be Still” and grow closer to Him rather than feel as if there is a rush of worry, pushing you along?

“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
–John 6:27

When I came across this via my email, I thought this would be a fantastic thing to share for Sunday’s “Praise and Worship”.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean living’”
I’m whispering “I was lost”,
Now I’m found and forgiven.

When I say …”I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.

I’m confessing that I stumble and need CHRIST to be my guide.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
and need HIS strength to carry on.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
and need God to clean my mess.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain,

I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou, I’m just a simple sinner
who received God’s good grace, somehow.

(Share this with somebody who already has this understanding, as reinforcement. But more importantly, share this with those who do not have a clear understanding of what it means to be a Christian, so that the myth   that Christians think they are “perfect” or “better than others” can be dispelled.)