Be Inspired, Not Discouraged
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When you see someone excelling—whether in school, sports, relationships, work, self-discipline, or communication—what’s your first reaction? Do you feel motivated to grow in that area, or do you feel left out, thinking, “Why don’t I have those abilities?” Or worse, “I could never do that”?
Hebrews 12 offers us encouragement for moments like this:
“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let’s throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
The heroes of faith in Hebrews 11—people who trusted God against impossible odds—are recorded not to make us feel small, but to inspire us. Their lives are meant to encourage us to step into the faith and purpose God has for us personally.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparison. We look at someone else’s success and either feel like failures or become prideful. As the apostle Paul reminds us, compar...
Fan the Flame
You were uniquely and intentionally created by God. He imagined you and spoke you into being. He breathed His creative life into your mother’s womb, at a specific time, in a specific setting, with specific strengths, abilities and weaknesses. He has seen and overseen your circumstances and promises to bring good out of every situation. He will use hardship as discipline to teach you about Himself, His Kingdom and how life works.
As you love Him, look for Him and learn His ways, He will unlock His ancient paths which have been prepared for you. God has purposely planted you, and He wants to help you grow; it’s who He is and it’s who you are in Him. He also wants you to live by the power of His Holy Spirit.
Somehow, when we become believers in Christ we experience a kind of spiritual upgrade. God magnifies our abilities to perceive, experience and express the Kingdom of God. This spiritual expansion is often
accompanied by fillings of the Holy Spirit that impart particular giftings an...
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