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How to Live like you Believe
"Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)
"Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:6-8)
"God is not a man, that He should lie,
nor a human being, that He should repent.
Has he said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?" (Numbers 23:19)
"Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises…" (Malachi 3:6)
God does not change
His love for US never changes. His love for YOU never changes.
Each day His love for us remains the same
 We have permission to fail - God still loves us.
We expect God to answer our prayers in a certain way.
Faith in God only fails when we have a faulty understanding of Him.
To increase faith we have to spend time reading and praying through the Word.
If God declares something to be true, we must believe it.
It is our own responsibility to increase our knowledge, through relationship.
Love God first
Love God first and know who we are. The other things will come as a result of that. I.e. Loving our neighbour.
We need to concentrate on getting our relationship right with God.
Although each person is different God loves us all the same.
God will never let us down, He is 100% for us, we must learn to rely on Him.
Push God into situations first.
We are Never Failures in Gods eyes
God allows problems to teach us to rely on Him. We grow through problems. Jesus has overcome all the problems.
Get rid of the can-nots and grasp the cans.
Everything that happens to us, is in His control.
As Christians we can live in His arms - stress free. Relax in him.
What Happens when Faith Fails?
"But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
Our position is secure, even when our progress is slow/stopped
Gods nature is to love us, our feelings that He doesn't love us are false.
As a loving parent, God loves and forgives us. And loves us as we are.
"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:1-2)
God loves us no matter what we do
Satan tells us otherwise.
Jesus has cancelled out the past, present and future sins. His work is eternal.
When we ask for forgiveness - God forgives instantly. We then need to let go, otherwise Satan will use it.
Ask the Lord at the end of the day, to reveal anything we've done to sin against Him.
Lay our worries down and praise God.
Our Behaviour is the Result of our Disbelief
God wants the very best for us, if we don't believe it - it's our faulty belief system.
God designed us to know if our belief system is properly aligned, 'Stress' for instance is a sign post, as is 'Anger', 'Anger' signals a blocked goal.
Emotions - Frustration
Anger - arises when a false goal is blocked.
Anxiety - signals an uncertain goal.
Depression - signals an impossible goal, when we base our future success on something that can never happen.
Sometimes we set ourselves impossible goals.
Question: How do we respond to people or things blocking our goals?
Answer: We try to manipulate situations, circumstances and even people.
How can we turn a bad goal into a good one?
We need to learn the difference between a desire and a Godly goal.
A Godly goal, reflects Gods purpose for our life and is not dependant on people, or circumstances, beyond our ability or right to control.
We are the Only Person we can Control
A godly desire is any specific result which depends on the co-operation of other people. It is the success of events or favourable circumstances which we have no right to control.
For example: We can desire that others become Christians, but we mustn't make it a goal.
God desires us to be like Himself (Gods goal)
1. Success
- Success comes from making the 'fruits of the spirit' our goal.
- Our sense of worth is not based on what we do, but in who we are, in Christ.
- Success is accepting Gods goal for us and becoming like Jesus.
2. Significance
- What we do and say for Christ will last forever.
- Everything we do for Christ is never wasted.
3. Fulfilment
4. Satisfaction
- We will get the best satisfaction from doing a few things well.
- Quality counts, not quantity.
- Don't be a 'jack of all trades' and 'master of none'.
- Don't spread ourselves thinly. Don't be too busy we miss our relationship with God.
5. Happiness
- We won't be happy if we focus on what we don't have.
- God has already given us everything we need for happiness - 'Eternal life', 'Christ' etc.
- God gives us everything we need, not want.
- We have everything we need.
- Sometimes a need will come at the last second, so we learn to rely on Him.
6. Fun
- We don't have fun when we try to keep up appearances and worry what others think. Worrying what others think stifles our fun.
- Stop worrying what others think and have fun.
- We need to be real. God has given us fun - God has a wonderful sense of humour.
- We have become people pleasers and not Christ pleasers.
7. Security
- God will not allow anything to separate us.
8. Peace
- We have peace with God - inner peace
- We can control our inner peace by allowing God into our lives.
- Nothing is too big or too small for God. Nothing is out of His control.
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