God puts people in our lives to help us out all the time! These people become some our greatest friends, and they help us through hard times. Do we ever take a second at the very least and think about all the amazing people God has lead you to? In the past week I have gotten to know so many awesome people. When I look back I realize that God lead me to all them for a reason, and we have helped each other out so so much!! This is how much God cares about us, he gives us the strength we need to overcome obstacles by giving us a support group of friends. Friends that care about us, and love us! Friends are God's blessing to us!
When people tell us things like oh you have such great spiritual gifts; do we ever fully believe them?? I mean yes God made each of us with a purpose and our own unique gifts. I don't think though that we realize how special our gifts are and how much they can help others with them. I mean really our lives can be the only gospel some people read, and its very true a lot of times. God gives us the unique gifts for a couple reasons. One to help others, two to be able to spread his Gospel, and grow closer to him. A lot of events happen to us during our lives, and they all happen for a reason. I went on a retreat this week and I honestly didnt want to go 100%, but I knew God wanted me there for reasons I didn't understand until now. And I'm going to be honest I have never seen God work so much in my life till this past week! We are always told oh you're going to do great things for the Lord but in reality we already are. Every time we say yes and we listen to him he is using us to help others in ways we can't imagine sometimes. God is already with us and working through we just have to open our eyes and give him the credit for what happens in our lives. Sometimes it can be stressful yes, but when we look back on our experiences and on the amazing wonderful people we have met we realize where God was taking us, and who we helped along the way. God loves us and he never puts us through things we can't handle or that we don't need. Everything that happens to us is for our own good to help us out in our journey to God and his Son. I mean even if we don't see it until we are looking back on it. If we want to be leaders for Christ first we have to be good listeners not just to Jesus but also to those around us. And we are all a family in the body of Christ. "Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten." God loves us so so much and his love is all for us!
Do you trust God? Simple question right, but there are so many ways to answer this question. I mean sometimes it is hard to trust God because I mean fear and doubt are easily apart of our daily lives. For example Matthew 14:22-33 when Jesus calls to Peter:
The Walking on the Water.
Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”
How many of us see ourselves in Peter? We say ok Jesus yeah sure take the wheel, but then something might happen or I might be something someone else mentions to us; and all of a sudden we let go of Jesus and start to doubt him. Then, when it becomes too much for us to handle on our own we run back to him. The cycle goes on and on, and we never build a full relationship of trust with Jesus. If just ask the Lord and his spirit to come and help us, heal us, whatever we need he will do it, and we can be just like Peter. Except even better because Jesus will give us the grace to hold onto him. I mean sure we will almost certainly fall into the water like Peter, but we're not perfect just yet so it's okay if we fall.
We all have a Father at some point in our lives. Now the word father can also have a very different meaning for everyone. But the one thing we need to remember is that we all have a Heavenly father. And he loves us and cares about us so much. So much that he sent his only son to earth to die on the cross for our sins. God our father cares that much about us that he would have his son pay the price for all of our sins. Ok so God is our father but what does it mean, what does it mean to be children of the one and only God? Well we have dignity worth and respect for others; that's what it means! Alright so fathers are three things right? Caregivers, providers, and protectors. God is all of those attributes to us if we let him, and ask him to be. God will always say yes to whatever we need when we ask because we are his children. So ask yourself this question: Do I believe that God loves me as his child? Why or why not?
