Striving To Be "Christ-Like"!

I know most everyone has something that is considered your 'thorn in the side", but God can make those thorn's a good thing if you will allow Him to. In the Bible, Paul's thorn brought him transformation (from Saul the persecutor of Christians to Paul the preacher), thankfulness (read 2nd Thessalonians 1:3), and a testimony (he was blinded on his journey down Damascus Road but his sight was restored). I didn't abandon ship during all of the storms with sickness, and God's grace is always sufficient to make it through. Those tough and painful experiences are what molds and makes you into a mature Christian, so you can praise God even during your pain. It is so hard to know we should pray for transformation but we pray for substitution; meaning we pray for God to take away all the bad and replace it with something good. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but how can we grow closer to God if we are always abandoning ship during the storms? Those unexpecte...

I tell you that stress and overwhelmness will come, when you allow the many voices in life to drown out the only voice that really matters, the voice of God. You can’t obey every voice you hear, because there are many people who are 'wolves dressed in sheep's clothing' without any idea that the devil is disguising himself as an angel of light and speaking lies through them. If you try to listen to every voice but God's, you will end up in failure, carrying a heavy load you were never created to carry. Obedience to God is not a heavy load, because you don’t have to carry it alone. God’s strength and power bear the burden of your obedience to Him. The more time you spend in God’s Word and in prayer, the easier it will be to recognize His voice. Praise God for the discernment He has given me over the years. I want and need to hear God's voice! I refuse to drown in the expectations of others, to the point that I am so confused about the next steps I need to take! God...

The good news is that, although the devil is described “like” a “roaring lion,” in reality he has no actual authority over believers. The enemy is not really a lion, but roars “like” a lion to bluff his victims into fear and intimidation; satan is a liar and deceiver and uses deception as his weapon to gain advantage over those who are ignorant of the limitations of his power. When Jesus gave His life on the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world, He also redeemed us from satan’s power and dominion over us. “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). “...For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Praise God! Satan is already a defeated enemy; his legal authority was neutralized by the finished work of Christ on the cross!