Watch What You FEED Your FAITH
I make a conscious effort every single morning to “try” to start my day off on the right foot. Mornings are very difficult with three children, but they know that we only listen to Christian music in the car. As soon as my children are dropped off I get my phone, hook it up to my car radio and listen to sermons all the way to work. I make sure that what I feed my heart and soul in the morning is a Godly influence. Then I get to work and it is very difficult to remain in the spirit when you hear all types of negativity, ungodly talk and see actions of others not representing a Godly attitude. I almost feel that I need to seclude myself in my own little world and keep repeating bible verses to myself. Do you surround yourself with positive Godly talk? What do you feed into your life? Is your music speaking of God and his wonderful works for your life? Do you pray throughout the day? Do you surround yourself with people who speak kind words and uplifting measures about God? Do you remember God throughout the day making wise decisions and choices? Do you constantly talk to God throughout the day about helping you throughout the next five minutes? Do you hang out with people who have strong faith and live by Gods word?
18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy in this book: If anyone adds anything to this, God will strike him with the plagues that are written in this book. 19If anyone takes away any words from this book of prophecy, God will take away his portion of the tree of life and the holy city that are described in this book.
We all struggle because it’s a different type of life. It’s a life where doing the right thing is the God thing. Choosing the right friends means Godly influencing friends. Making the right decisions means you may have to remove yourself from places or people that are not boosting your spiritual walk. When you surround yourself with ungodly people you start breathing into your faith everything they say or do. You may not realize it but when you take ungodly things in your mind it starts thinking it is okay to think or do those things. The devil will trick your mind into thinking you can “handle” hanging out with ungodly people, you are strong. He will tempt you with friends that are not on the right path. Although I believe in treating every person equally and with respect you have the opportunity to stand up and say, “Is this boosting my faith?” God doesn’t say you have to be friends with someone, he merely says treat all with dignity and respect. Who you surround your life with is completely up to you; you have that choice, but is it pleasing to God? Also there is a difference when you are trying to help a person see God, witnessing to them and showing them the Godly life. You can do that and refuse to participate in the things they do that are ungodly. When you stand up to the devilish and negative things in this life you are showing God that you will do whatever it takes to feed your faith the positive Godly things.
We choose what we listen to the repeating of verse after verse that goes against everything God wants us to believe. We choose to see that R rated movie that totally separates us from our divine destiny. We choose to go to that bar and get so drunk we cannot remember the next moment or how we got home. We choose to date that guy/girl that we know will disrespect us over and over. We choose to believe that we do not need God to make things right. We choose to disrespect people and commit hate crimes against others for our own selfish gain. We choose to break the rules, speed and do things that are not right. We choose to not pay our taxes, to avoid doing what is right. We choose to enter into a business and take the power into our own hands as we commit a crime. We choose to have friends that lie, cheat and steal because it is fun and you are popular. We choose to be a part of that girl/boy click group in school that bullies other kids for what they are wearing and call them names. We choose to show up late for appointments and then lie as to why we are late. We choose to act like we are perfect and think that God will not notice. We choose to judge people and hold them to standards we don’t have to hold ourselves. We choose to make fun of people, insult them and think we are still respected by others. We choose to walk away from our children when they need us because we have something else to do. We choose to put others before God and promise to make it up to him later. We ALL choose to do what we do with our lives every single day, no one makes you do what you do, but your GOD does warn you, ARE YOU LISTENING?
Be careful, brothers and sisters, that none of you ever develop a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Encourage each other every day while you have the opportunity. If you do this, none of you will be deceived by sin and become stubborn.
If you get up every single morning and eat a piece of toast, go about your day and eat nothing else until the next morning, over and over, eventually you will drop. Some people do this with their faith; they spend 5 quick minutes in the morning in the word of God and do nothing throughout the day to make a Godly effort to build positive influences in their life. Eventually they will feel lost and out of place because they not following the prescribed daily diet of faith for our life supplied by only God. When we neglect our faith and the types of Godly influences we surround ourselves with daily we begin to feel weak. Without faith, we are weak and choices that we make will be on our own degree and not backed by the Heavenly Father. When we starve our faith we begin to doubt, our trust is not where it should be and slowly we dwindle away more and more from God and what he has planned for our lives. Just as our bodies need food to survive and thrive, our faith needs watering and nourishment every single day from the start. It also needs us to continue to feed into our faith all throughout the day with things we say, things we do, people we associate with and places we go. Do not think on your own strength alone you can surpass all the evil works of the devil. He is wandering in the field of our life, lurking in every dark corner, waiting to jump out at just the right moment of your weakness. He lets you run into people that are needy, clingy and do not feed their faith. He wants you to become entangled in all aspects of sin so that you fall and feel so low you feel there is no hope for your faith. Remember every single sin starts with a choice; you have the choice to choose to sin or not sin. Your Heavenly Father will urge you multiple times with that small still voice in your ear that you are making a wrong decision, but most of the time if our faith is not where it should be our own needs overpower the voice and we jump into sin.
Blessed is the person who trusts the Lord. The Lord will be his confidence. He will be like a tree that is planted by water. It will send its roots down to a stream. It will not be afraid in the heat of summer.
Its leaves will turn green. It will not be anxious during droughts. It will not stop producing fruit.
Its leaves will turn green. It will not be anxious during droughts. It will not stop producing fruit.
We as adults have trust issues, because of things we may have been through in our past or things we have seen happen. The word of the Bible provides trust in faith. We cannot see the faith, but we know that it is there and we know that God will continue working on behalf of our life if we just believe. We have to feed that faith the nourishment it needs to continue growing so that our trust levels begin to rise. We have to constantly stay grounded in our faith to be able to withstand the corruption in the world today. Just as soldiers put on their army to head into battle, we to need our armor to head out into a world where removing Jesus is the topic so highly talked about. Taking religion out of schools, telling them they cannot pray. What is this world coming to when we remove the one person who created everything? Where are these people going to be standing when God comes back and takes us all home, will they still want to remove him? If you get entangled in the mess of the world today you have a very hard road ahead of you. You may be the minority in your group, but you are standing for what is right and just. If you have to excuse yourself from a movie that is portraying horrific violence and vulgar language then do it with your head held high. If you have to tell that so called friend that hanging out with them is not boosting your spiritual walk then do it. If you have to step in and tell your children they will not watch or listen to certain things, then by all means as their parent jump into their world. They are not old enough to live in the real world, so you make their world. Make sure they are seeing and hearing things that are pleasing to God. This is difficult I know I live in the same world you do. The hustle and bustle of life gets too busy, the aggravation sets in and before you know it you are saying and doing things you know you should not be. It is okay, ground yourself in your faith, repent and try harder next time. We are all hypocrites until we perfect our faith and our faith cannot be perfected until we see Jesus face to face. Until then all we can do is try, fail, fall, sin, repent, climb and be better next time. The key to staying up in your Godly life is to feed it positive, uplifting, Godly meals.
Finally, receive your power from the Lord and from his mighty strength. Put on all the armor that God supplies. In this way you can take a stand against the devil’s strategies.
You can start your day off with Godly prayer, pray to God to keep your feet firmly planted in His word all throughout the day. Pray that God will direct your steps and keep you from embarking upon the wrong crowd. Ask God to send you influences that will boost your spirit, grow your faith and build your trust in His word. If you start your day off with a prayer of thanksgiving and ways that you can be fully surrounded by His word all day long to protect you then you are starting off on the right foot. Throughout the day read his word, stay in His word, spread his word and believe his word. Get text messages sent to your phone with bible verses, read them over and over. Write down verses on sticky notes, post them everywhere you go. Tape a verse to the mirror in your car to remind you every time you see it to live in a positive manner that is pleasing to God. Surround yourself with Holy people who thrive on their faith and want to see the next amazing thing God has in store for their life. When you get to a point where you start seeing Gods actions before they are finished you are traveling on the right road. When you see his miracles and blessings in work and you know everything will work out, you are headed in the right direction. When you pray to God to take a problem or worry and you suddenly feel better and do not let that negative feeling slip back in, you are building your trust. When you can witness to another without feeling like you are stepping on their toes then you are building your faith. Make every conscious effort to surround yourself daily with wholesome, positive, uplifting, encouraging and faith building tools that will boost you towards Gods will for your life. You deserve to be on the right track and it’s not your fault you have stumbled and fallen off course, but it is your fault if you keep thinking you do not need God to survive. God created all things, and you need Him to go from one moment to the next. Without God in your life you are a spiraling train headed for derailment. You need the tracks of your faith to keep the heartbeat of your train (GOD) moving in the right direction at the right speed, with the right pace throughout your life. Let God be there for everything you say or do. Whenever you step into a new situation look for God, if you cannot find him, step out. You may feel alone at times in your life because you cannot find a Godly mentoring group of friends, but God is always with you to guide you and support you. He promises to give you double blessing for walking away from double trouble. Open your heart and soul to receive it today. Don’t waste another precious moment on things and people that will not boost you spiritually.
A lazy person craves food and there is none, but the appetite of hard-working people is satisfied.
You are amazing, your life is precious and God loves you enough to “want” you to do what is right. Following his commandments is all we have to do. Treating others with love & kindness, being a positive role model and securing our faith so we can lead another to Christ is most important. God is going to love us no matter what if we believe in Him and simply try to do what is right. He gives us chance after chance and he will never let us fall. He believed in your before you were born, before you took that first step or said that first word. He believed in your when you first talked back to your parents, snuck out of the house to see that boyfriend/girlfriend and skipped your first class. He loves you the same today as he did yesterday, but he is delighted when you put him first and really try to live your life to the fullest Godly honor. Think about everything you do before you do it and ask yourself, “Is this pleasing to God, what would he say or think?”
You will know exactly how to handle the situation and take the next step towards trusting and believing in your Heavenly Father. He loves you and needs you, that’s why he created you. The most exciting thing about being a believer is knowing that our future is secure in Heaven with Jesus and that we have a diving purpose for being created. Aren’t you curious as to what God made you for? I know I am and I pray all throughout the day asking God to lead me on that path. If you need to talk, write me. I would be glad to help you, be there for you or be that positive uplifting Christian friend you have been seeking.
Have a bless day,
KD
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