Take Hold of Your Future
What are your plans for the future? Is there anything you want to accomplish or become? Is there anywhere you want to go or anything you want to do?
Have you given much thought to what God may have planned for you? He prophesied through Jeremiah that He knew the plans He had for the people of Israel. (Jeremiah 29:11) And, He knows His plans for you too. For, “You are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do.”(Ephesians 2:10) He has things planned for your future.
The apostle Paul wrote near the end of his ministry that he was pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ had taken hold of him (Philippians 3:12) God wants us (like Paul) to lean and press into the purposes for which Christ has taken hold of our lives.
We may imagine that Christ takes hold of us to accomplish His work, but God has more than work in store for us. He is primarily after relationship and wholeness. He...
Are You Anxious?
We have been created by God. He fashioned our personhood and our personalities. He knows what makes us tick. He not only knows how we think, He knows what we think before we do. His presence is always around us and, if we know Him, we experience the Holy Spirit’s presence within us. (Psalm 139)
God knows our future, and He has prepared paths, encounters, provisions and purposes for us. (Ephesians 2:10) There is no need to worry – it adds nothing but distress to your life. (Matthew 6:25-34) There is no value is anxiety; it wars against our faith and our sense of trust in God. Unfortunately, the enemy somehow convinces many people that worry and anxiety are forms of taking responsibility – that they demonstrate trustworthiness by being worried and obsessively concerned about what might go wrong in the future.
Let’s take a moment and let God’s salvation from faithless living sink deeply into our souls, affecting our feelings...
What is Your Real Name?
Names are important; they carry meaning. When we name a pet, we usually try to capture its “personality” or some strong identifying trait or characteristic. In Bible times, name giving was an important responsibility. People would pray and share insight in order to understand God’s intent for the new life that He was creating.
Have you ever realized that God invented you, planned you, created you and set you in this particular generation and location for His purposes? None of these things are happenstance. Whether or not your present “natural” name clearly reflects God’s purposes, He does have an intimate and purposeful name for you. (Revelation 2:17)
Other people, and the structures of this world, have their names for you, too. Some of these labels may be harmful or playful or affectionate, while others might describe how you have been useful (or not) for their purposes. We must be careful, however, not to build our identity on the...
