Hello Dear Friends,
How are you doing this week? I hope you are drawing nearer to Jesus each day and seeking His love and guidance for your life. I understand this may seem hard to fit into a busy schedule, or just hard to remember to do. Stick with it. Jesus is always there listening and working in your life in response to your faithfulness to seek Him.
God desires all of His children to faithfully follow Him whether they are experiencing great joy in their lives, or extreme difficulties. No matter the situation God’s children need to always follow Jesus and trust Him for of all their needs. In this way, God’s children will walk with Him daily in the security of His protection and love.
One of the most important things about being a follower of Jesus Christ is loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When we love Jesus this much, then everything in this world including our own will, becomes less important in comparison to Him. Daily, we continually give everything over to Him so that we may live for Him, and we will grow in our relationship with Him. As we grow, we receive from God the ability to faithfully follow Jesus during the good times, because we can’t stop thinking about Him and His love. When we are going through trials we can remain at peace and rest in His loving arms, because we trust that He is working out everything for our good, because we love Him. As we walk with Jesus daily, our hearts will become more and more alive as we realize how much God truly loves each of us. In this, our hearts are secure in His faithful love and protection over us.
There are many faithful servants of God in the Bible. In order for God to use them according to His will, they had to give over to God their will to do things their own way; and decide to follow where God led them. When they did this, they were not promised a life of prosperity or ease. They were not guaranteed that they would not suffer many difficulties in their service to God for His glory. What they did receive was God, Himself, daily leading them and helping them as they needed. No matter what they went through they knew that God was watching over them and walking with them. Even when the prophets complained in their writings how they felt all alone, they knew that they were not alone, they were crying out to God, their father in heaven. God desires us to cry out to Him as they did. He is always listening to the voices of His children, and He brings peace and love in the midst of our fears and troubles.
I have been a believer for nine years now, and in that time I have done my best to follow Jesus as He has prompted me to do things for Him. Over the past year I have grown in my love, obedience, and trust in Him. But only in the past few weeks have I truly begun to die to self, so that Jesus may live through me. This happened one day when I was led by Jesus to close my eyes and look around. As I looked at my life and everything and everyone in it, I realized that I love Jesus more than any of this. As I learned more and more about His love for me, Jesus taught me that I can love Him in return by loving and serving others according to His will. This brought such joy to my heart. So now I, daily give Jesus my self, and He is faithful to give me opportunities to love others as He loves me. The peace and calm this gives me is like nothing else. Jesus is one of a kind and perfect in every way. I hope all who follow Jesus have a chance to learn about and experience His personal love for them. This will keep each of us at rest in Him in any situation of fear or anxiety we may find ourselves in. With the love of Christ, we can overcome any obstacle, because nothing is impossible for God.
“No one has seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He is us, because he has given us His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us… There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…1John 4:12-18
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25
Staying close to Jesus during good times and bad times will guarantee that your relationship with Him will be strong. You will become strong in Him, no matter what happens.
We will begin reading Psalm 16-20 for two weeks.
Blessings,
Patricia Terrell
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