On December 31, my mentor asked me to join her in choosing a word to live out in 2013, all year long.

Let me ask you:

What one word will you focus on for your life this year?

My word:

I think the Joyce Meyer Bible study on youversion.com sums this up and I want to pass this along.

Galatians 6:10 NLT
Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone-especially to those in the family of faith.

Living a Life of Blessing
Joyce Meyer

I believe that one of the greatest opportunities we have as Christians is to make a profound difference in the lives of others. Throughout my life of ministry, God has given me the opportunity to help many people who need guidance.

But I don’t believe this is a special opportunity that God made just for me. Everyone, you included, has the ability to influence someone. When you take the time to reach out to others and invest in someone’s life, you are impacting the world…yours and theirs.

Galatians 6:10 tells us to “be mindful to be a blessing” to everyone God brings across our path. We are called to be a blessing and build up others in their faith, to not be afraid to reach out and to speak the truth in love.

I don’t believe God wants us to be mere spectators in life. He wants us to be people who really love others and care enough to be willing to pour into their lives. We need to build up others in Jesus’ name so they can grow and reach even more people.

Whether you know it or not, someone’s watching and looking up to you. People are influenced by the way you live and they need to see God’s love in your everyday actions.

At times we’ll make mistakes, and when we do we can thank God for His forgiveness, but we also have to realize that many times we may be the only evidence of God some people see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

God wants me to be intentional and be the evidence of His love…I will obey my God and live an INTENTIONAL life

God never made a person that he didn’t love. He made you; he loves you; and God doesn’t make junk! He loves you unconditionally. He loves you very, very much.

Do you know the secret to self-esteem? If you want confidence, then understand how much you matter to God and if God loves you, who cares what anyone else thinks? Because God loves you, there’s no need to prove yourself worth. We don’t have to wear certain kinds of clothes to make us feel like we’re okay, or drive a certain kind of car to prop up our faltering egos. We don’t need status symbols anymore.

Isn’t it good news to know that God never gives up on you? No matter what you do, his love never gives up. It’s wide enough to include everybody and it’s long enough to last forever. Accept his love and worship him, knowing that his love is long enough to last for all time!

Ephesians 3: 18-19
18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Psalm 89:2 Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.

Source: Rick Warren Youversion.com reading plan

Ephesians 4:24 NLT
Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.

God uses his Word, people, and circumstances to mold us. All three are indispensable for character development. God’s Word provides the truth we need to grow, God’s people provide the support we need to grow, and circumstances provide the environment to practice Christ-likeness.

If you study and apply God’s Word, connect regularly with other believers, and learn to trust God in difficult circumstances, I guarantee you will become more like Jesus.

Many people assume all that is needed for spiritual growth is Bible study and prayer. But some issues in life will never be changed by Bible study or prayer alone. God uses people. He usually prefers to work through people rather than perform miracles, so that we will depend on each other for fellowship. He wants us to grow together.

In many religions, the people considered to be the most spiritually mature and holy are those who isolate themselves from others in mountaintop monasteries, uninfected by contact with other people.

You cannot grow to Christ-likeness in isolation. You must be around other people and interact with them. You need to be a part of a church and community.

Why? Because true spiritual maturity is all about learning to love like Jesus, and you can’t practice being like Jesus without being in relationship with other people, I encourage you to do just that!!

Source: Rick Warren’s Youversion.com Bible Reading plan

From Youversion.com ~ Rick Warren Reading plan…just too good.

No matter what the pollsters, pundits, and prognosticators claim, no one can accurately predict all that is going to happen in the next year, let alone the next few days or weeks. Our best forecasts are just educated guesses.

Change is not only increasing in speed and intensity, but also in unpredictability. How can anyone succeed when the future is so uncertain?

The Bible suggests three timeless principles for facing an uncertain future:

Set goals according to God’s direction. The Bible says, “We may make our plans, but God has the last word.” (Proverbs 16:1 GNT) In other words, planning without praying is presumption. Start by praying, “God, what do you want me to do?”

Live one day at a time. Decide to make the most of each moment of your life to accomplish God’s will in your life. Jesus said, “Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.” (Matthew 6:34 LB)

Don’t procrastinate. Do it now! “Don’t boast about what you’re going to do tomorrow, for you don’t know what a day may bring forth.” (Proverbs 27:1) Procrastinating is a subtle trap. It wastes today by postponing things until tomorrow.

What did you plan to get done last year that you didn’t do? When do you intend to start working on it?

A friend posted this on Facebook this morning and I wanted to share it.

“Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400.
It carries over no balance from day to day.
Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course?
Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is TIME.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no drawing against “tomorrow.”
You must live in the present on today’s deposits.
Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running!! Make the most of today.

Treasure every moment that you have!
And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special,
special enough to spend your time with.”

This past Monday, my oldest nephew Taylor, (who is at the bottom of this picture) went to Army Boot camp. He just graduated from High School this past May and enlisted in the Army. Time has passed to quickly, he has grown up too fast. So we treasure every moment we have with loved ones because before you know it, the moment is gone.

This also reminds me that we really don’t know how much time we have left on this earth. Jesus could return, or we could pass away from this life. We don’t know what our future holds, but you do if you are a child of God and then you have the security of a future in Heaven. An Eternity with your Savior. Don’t you want everyone to know this?

Right now, Craig Groeschel, our Senior Pastor at Lifechurch.tv is sharing a lesson series called The End. He is sharing what the Bible says about the end times when Christ returns. If you don’t know Jesus, or have a personal relationship with Him, please check out the first Lesson is this series. You can go to http://live.lifechurch.tv and check out an online experience.

I want to tell everyone about Jesus because we don’t know when He will return, and wouldn’t you hate to miss the glory of Heaven?

If is better to forgive than to harbor hurt and resentment. And God forgives me, so I should forgive others no matter what.

Matthew 6:14-15 ~ “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Give God Your Hurts by Rick Warren

YouVersion.com

In your life, you will be hurt by others; sometimes intentionally; sometimes unintentionally. How you handle that hurt determines your happiness.

When you bottle up hurt in your life and hold onto it – that is called resentment. If somebody hurt you years ago and you’re still holding onto it, it will poison your life. For your own health and happiness, you must learn to forgive.

The Bible says forgive and be forgiven. In fact, Jesus says, “If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.” (Matthew 6:15 TEV) They’re inter-related.

Forgiveness is the only way to get rid of the past. That’s one of the values of prayer. It helps you unload, forgive those who have hurt you and let it go so you can get on with life.

When we let go of our hurts and forgive others we are reflecting the grace of our heavenly Father, who forgave us and continues to forgive us. It means we’ve given God our love; we’ve given God our lives; and, in doing that, we worship God.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT ~ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

No matter what you do in life, God designed you with talents, gifts and interests that He wants you to use for His glory.

You are custom-made. There’s nobody like you in the whole world. And the gifts, the abilities, the talents, even the interests you have were genetically given to you by God. God made you with a specific purpose in mind and He wants you to use the gifts he’s given you in your daily life.

I love this, the Bible says you are God’s workmanship. The Greek word used for workmanship is poema. That’s where the English word poem comes from ~~ you are God’s poem!

You are God’s work of art.

You are God’s masterpiece.

I recently took up running…well walk/running, okay…jogging? Anyway, I am training to go from my couch to a 5K first and then eventually do a Half Marathon in a year. Lots of time…but there is still training that you have to do, as there is in life as well. I came across this article on Tumblr recently and I had to share it because it is so appropriate as to how we should live on the road of called Life.

Philippians 3:14 has always been a favorite verse of my sister, Pam. She was a very successful track runner in High School and she still enjoys it today. She had it posted on her wall in her closet so that everyday when she opened the door to get ready for the day she saw the verse.

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ” NIV84

I like it in the New Living Translation and The Message

“I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” NLT

“I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” The Message

Check out this article…amazing advice that we need to follow.

Life is like a Marathon
by Naeem Callaway

1. Pain is part of the process. There’s no way to train for a distance race without having every part of your body hurting at some point. It’s the same in life. Pain means we’re growing; we’re being stretched beyond our limits. In life, God always uses our pain to bring about growth.

2. Stay in your lane. In life, we’re so quick to measure our progress against other people, but God never wants us playing the comparison game. His plan for each of our lives is masterfully unique! Run your own race and don’t be prideful of anyone you’re outpacing and don’t be discouraged by anyone who is outpacing you.

3. Keep Moving Forward. You might not be going very fast, but always keep moving forward. The Apostle Paul write that he was, “forgetting what was behind and straining to reach the prize that was ahead.” Don’t focus on how far you still have to go…just keep taking one step at a time. God will always give you strength for that next step until you finish the race.

4. Stay hydrated. With running, if you don’t have enough water in you, you’ll never finish. In life, if you don’t have the Living Water (Jesus) in you, you’ll never finish.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.. Hebrews 12: 1b, 2a NKJV

Ephesians 1:15-23 NLT

Such a powerful prayer! Take it to heart, believe it!

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called – his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else – not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.