Mind Pollution

Verse of the Day:

James 1:27

²⁷ Religion that our God accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to try to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

We all know that the Bible was written a long time ago.  So sometimes it’s hard to take what is written and put it into terms that we use today.   For example, how often are we asked to look after orphans and widows?  I’m gonna guess you’re not asked too often.  But God is really just asking us to be with anyone (sooo I guess that could be an orphan or widow!) when they are having a hard time.  The way that we really serve God is by doing what He would do.  And obviously He would be there to comfort people in their suffering!

The part of this verse that hits me the hardest is ‘…to try to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’  Woah.  Polluted is defined as making something impure or contaminated.  There are so many ways that we are polluted by the world on a daily basis.  We are told that it’s cool to drink, smoke and have sex.  We are told it’s not fun to be a Christian.  We are peer pressured into situations we don’t want to be a part of.  We look at Seventeen or Cosmogirl and think we need to be skinny and pretty to be happy.  All these things are polluting our minds to make us think that we need to be something other than the person God made us to be.  You are made in His image and the only person you need approval from is Him!  Don’t let your mind be corrupted by what the world is telling you.  God expects us to be pure, loving and faithful to Him.

The Simple Truth:  The world is constantly trying to make you its own.  Know that you are God’s.  Keep your mind on the person God wants you to be, not the person the world wants you to be.

Reflect:  Who or what makes me feel like I’m being polluted by the world?

Apply:  As hard as it is, try to see yourself in God’s image!  Know that you don’t have to be the skinniest, the prettiest or drink in order for Him to think you’re amazing.

Pray:

Lord, please help me to notice when people are having a difficult time and to be Your hands and feet in order to serve them like You want me to.  Keep my mind and heart clean and pure and show me how to get away from the pollution of the world.  Thank You God for making me in Your image.  Amen.

Peace, love & prayers-

K

Change

Verse of the Day:

Hebrews 13:8

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

I don’t know about you guys, but I sometimes have trouble dealing with change.  Like I got my hair cut last week (only a trim. ha), and I know it’s literally going to take me a good month to get used to it.  Lame but true.  Or when I went off to college for the first time, I had a REALLY hard time dealing with all the changes that came with that.  I felt like I didn’t know how to make new friends, I had no idea where my classes were at, and I was living 4 hours away from home!  Obviously I eventually learned to deal with all that, but I remember that for the first few months of school I felt like there was no consistency in my life.

Changes happen every day of our lives.  I sometimes feel like there is nothing I can count on to be the same every single day.  Friends get mad at you, boyfriends dump you, and your parents change their rules.  You might get a bad grade on a test or run a really bad race in track.  There are a million things that can go wrong.  But I’ve realized that there really is one thing that is the same EVERY SINGLE DAY of my life.  And obviously from my choice of verses, that is Jesus!  How comforting is it to know that He will never change?  And that His love and desire for a relationship with us will never change, no matter how we act or what happens to us?  So awesome.

The Simple Truth:  When you feel like your world is spinning out of control, you can know that Jesus will ALWAYS stay the same.

Reflect:  When things go wrong, am I able to step back and realize that although a lot of things aren’t staying the same, I have a God that will never change?

Apply:  Although God doesn’t change, He does change things in our life.  Next time something changes and it is hard to deal with, try to make something good out of it.  God has a plan!

Pray:

Lord, Thank You for always being the one constant thing in my life.  It is a blessing to know that everything in my world can change but You will always stay the same.  Thank You for the changes you make in my life even if they don’t make sense to me right away.  You are a great God.  Amen.

Peace, love & prayers-

K

Stressing Out!

Verse of the day: 

Colossians 4:6

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I love this verse.  I actually wrote this verse on my desk at school so when I am doing homework and more than likely stressing out, I am reminded of how to handle my anxiety.  How often are we totally freaking out about things that are totally 100% our of our control?  I know I do this a lot more than I should.  It’s so easy to think that it would just be easier if I would do things on my own instead of relying on help from God.  But God WANTS us to come to Him with our stress!  In 1 Peter 5:7, He says ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.’  Just like in yesterday’s verse, the word ‘all’ really sticks out to me here.  God doesn’t want just some of your struggles; He doesn’t want just the easy things or even just the hard things.  He wants ALL of it.  We have an amazing God who asks us to lay all of our burdens down onto Him because He doesn’t want us to have to deal with anything alone.  Another great thing about this verse is that it reminds me to give thanks when I am praying.  Don’t just pray about the hard things that are going on in your life, thank God for the good things too.  Even if it’s as simple as thanking him for a smile someone gave you in the hallway or that your mom made your favorite meal for dinner.  We are all so much more blessed than we realize. 

The Simple Truth:  God wants to be a part of every aspect of your life.  If you’re stressing out about something, tell Him!  And if someone did something that totally made your day, tell him about that too. 

Reflect:  When do I feel like I can handle my problems better by myself than with help from God?

Apply:  Put this verse somewhere!  Maybe on your desk like I did, maybe on your mirror or in the bathroom.  Somewhere you’ll see it every day and be reminded of how to handle your stress when you feel like life is throwing too much at you.

Pray:

Lord, help me to remember that You are always willing to help me with whatever is going on in my life.  I am so lucky that I will never have to be without You.  You are such an amazing God for wanting to take ALL of my struggles and make them Your own.  Thank You for being the one thing I can always count on.  Amen.

Peace, love & prayers-

K

Armor of God - Part 2

Verse of the Day:  

Ephesians 6:16-17.

¹⁶ Above all, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Since this is a continuation of yesterday, I’m going to skip the explanation of where this came from. :)   And maybe shorten this one up a little since we realized after we posted it that it was quite long!  Btw, sadly I’ll be writing by myself this week because Lauren is off at Choir Camp (Nerd Camp). 

So you are already prepared with your belt of truth, your breastplate of righteousness, and your sweet gospel proclaiming shoes.  What else do you need in order to be a soldier in God’s army?

Okay, shield of faith.  I actually like how the Bible describes this one.  ‘Above all, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one’.  Woah.  The first part of this that really hits me is that it says ‘Above all…’.  So if you have no other piece of armor, have this one!  Your shield of faith will protect you by extinguishing ALL (not some!) of the attacks of the devil.  So. Cool.  Your faith is a tool more powerful that you can imagine.  It determines how you live your life, who you interact with, what you do with your free time. 

The real thought that comes to my mind when I think of a helmet is the fact that I never wanted to wear a bike helmet when I was a kid because it didn’t ‘look cool’.  I don’t know why I was so concerned with being cool as an elementary/ middle schooler, but I totally was.  My parents obviously wanted me to wear a helmet because it protected my head which was very important.  The definition of salvation is ‘Deliverance from the power or penalty of sin; redemption’.  So our helmet of salvation protects us from sin, persecution, all that not fun stuff.  And although it might not always look cool to wear a helmet (or in this case be a Christian), our Father wants us to wear it in order to protect us from pain. 

And our last piece of armor, the sword of the Spirit.  Swords again make me think only of medieval times.  Or Lord of the Rings.  Ha.  Okay, anywayyy.  The sword of the Spirit is talked about in chapter 4 of the book of Luke.  Jesus is tempted three different times by the devil and overcomes all the temptations by the ‘sword of the Spirit’.  A sword is used as protection as well as defense.  In the same way, we can use the word of God as protection and as defense.  Check out Luke 4:1-13.

The Simple Truth: In order to be a soldier for Christ, we need to be dressed in our armor at all times.  Being a Christian may not always look the coolest, but the reward is more than we can ever imagine.

Reflect:  In what situations does it feel ‘not cool’ for me to love God?

Apply:   Surround yourself with people who are dressed in armor too so that if you can’t defend yourself, they can help you.  Always be an example of what it means to live  as a Christian and influence people w/ your actions.

Pray:

Lord, help me to use my shield of faith in situations where I feel I am being threatened.  Help me to know that You are always with me and defending me.  Give me a helmet of salvation to protect me from hurt, and the sword of the Spirit to defend and protect myself.  Thank You for all that You do.  Amen.

Peace, love & prayers-

K

Armor of God - Part 1

Verse of the Day:  

Ephesians 6:10-11, 14-15.

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes… ¹⁴ Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. ¹⁵ As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

Okay, so what does it mean to put on the full armor of God?  Armor?  What the heck?  It reminds us of a knight.  Wellll let’s get out of the medieval ages and figure out what it means to be a part of God’s army.

First, in case you didn’t know, the book of Ephesians is actually a letter written by a follower of Paul, the apostle, to the group of people known as the Ephesians.  Not at all doubting your intelligence, we just never knew that until we read deeper into the Bible.  This letter explains that we’re not saved by DOING good works, but in ORDER to do good works.  Sweet, huh?

Let’s start with the belt of truth.  So, we wear belts to keep everything in place.  The same goes for our ‘belt of truth’.  A belt holds up our clothes, just like our ‘belt of truth’ holds up our faith. Truth keeps us secure in Christ and makes all the other pieces of armor effective.

Now, on to the breastplate of righteousness.  Obviously the point of the breastplate is to protect the chest.  Who knows what vital organ is in the chest?  If you guessed the heart, you’re right!  Having our ‘breastplate of righteousness’ will help us stay confident in our faith knowing that God is protecting our hearts from pain. 

Shoes.  We love shoes.  We’d love to tell you all about our collection of shoes, but we have more important things to talk about.  To be a good Christian soldier, we need to be ready at all times to show the love of Christ and to have an answer for anyone who questions our faith.  We need to reach out to those lost souls and be examples of the gospel.  Your shoes need to be on and laces double knotted for wherever God leads you.

More on the armor of God tomorrow.  Get excited.



The Simple Truth:  Fighting for God and your faith can sometimes be a real battle.  But God gives you the tools you need to stay strong.  And you can always trust that He will never leave your side.

Reflect:  How can you dress in the armor of God on a daily basis?

Apply:  Take small steps!  God expects you to be ready to defend Him, but He’ll never put you in a situation that’s more than you can handle.  No soldier is ready right away, so don’t expect yourself to be either.  We’re just in boot camp right now. ;)

Pray:

Lord, give me the belt of truth so that I am secure in Your love, the breastplate of righteousness to protect my fragile heart, and good walking shoes so that I am able to go out and share Your good news to those who are struggling to find You.  Thank You for protecting me and always being my greatest warrior.  Amen.

L&K