I have become a big fan of Joel Osteen these past couple of months. His insight and words always seem to speak to me at the perfect time. I recently was on his blog and I came across some of his entries and I pulled different parts of different topics off to share because I have found them so real and comforting, especially with how I've been feeling lately.
"Remember, as believers in Jesus, we are His body, His hands and feet in the earth. We are His voice; we are His representatives. Look for ways to encourage the people around you even if you are the one who needs encouragement. Like seeds, those words of life go out and then a harvest of blessings returns in your own life. Keep speaking, keep loving and keep honoring God with your words and actions and let Him pour out His love and blessing in your own life in return!"
"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life" (John 6:63, NIV).John 15:13 tells us that "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). This scripture is talking about the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made to pay the price so that we can spend eternity with Him, but every day we have the opportunity to "lay down" ourselves for the people in our lives. Making sacrifices and giving to others of our time, abilities and resources is how we show our love. It's easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day activities of life. Most people spend their days maxed out, but we have to make the effort to communicate our love to our family and friends.
MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BLOG POST OF HIS, definitely hits home for me right now:
Everyone goes through difficulties and painful situations in life. In fact, scripture tells us that in this world we will have tribulations and trials. I’ve heard it said that the life of faith is not about the absence of problems, but the presence of power—God’s power at work in us leading us to the place of wholeness and victory. He promises to take those things that the enemy meant for evil and turn them around for our good. It says in Romans 8 that He causes all things to work together for our good because we love Him.
In his book, The Heart Revolution, my friend, Sergio De La Mora puts it this way: “Without God’s perspective, we miss out on some of His greatest lessons found in this tension between joy and tribulation. Think of a car battery. It fulfills its purpose through its power that comes from both a positive and a negative current running through it. When a car battery runs out of power, we give it a jump-start by hooking up both the positive and negative cables. The tension of joy and tribulation in our lives works the same way. We need both positive and negative currents to energize our purpose and call.”
Today, I want to encourage you, no matter what you may be facing, no matter what you may have been through in the past, God is not the author of destruction; He is the author of life and peace. He didn’t bring that difficulty into your life, but He can use it to launch you forward into your destiny. John 16:33 tells us that even though we have challenges, we can be of good cheer because He has overcome the world and deprived it of power to harm you. When you put your hope in God, you will never be disappointed! Keep your heart and mind open to Him, keep meditating on His Word, and let Him revolutionize your heart and life!
Last but not least a very good insight on relationships and the set expectations we go in with:
"People enter relationships with set standards and expectations. When people do not meet the standards we set, we become disenchanted with the relationship, allowing disappointment and frustration to set in. It's easy to get along with people when everything is going great and others are acting exactly the way we want them to. But what happens when something goes wrong and our feelings get hurt? If you're not careful, you'll begin to focus on the unmet expectations which will affect your attitude, and ultimately, your relationship.
But it doesn't have to be that way if we will just learn to have realistic expectations and let people off the hook. We can avoid a lot of heartache by simply giving people room to be human. We have to accept the fact that nobody is perfect, and even the best people will fail us at times. We have to choose forgiveness because it is not up to anyone in our lives to keep us happy; that is our own responsibility. Too often, we want our mate to cheer us up when we are down; we expect our partner to always be loving and kind. We expect our boss to recognize our hard work and our friends to always be there for us. But those are unrealistic expectations. The perfect spouse does not exist, nor does the perfect boss, nor the perfect friend. We would avoid a lot of disappointments by simply understanding that no matter how much we love people, no matter how much they love us, at some point, they won't live up to our expectations, or they will hurt our feelings in some way. But when we get our eyes off their shortcomings and on to Jesus, we open the door for His grace and healing in our relationships. We open the door for love which is all that matters in eternity."
No comments:
Post a Comment