Art Work-Hope

So I love to be creative, and I love to inspire other people to use their gifts and talents for God's glory. So I figure that I would display and explain some of my recent art work. This piece is made from four
mini canvases. I then strung them together so that they hang in a row, and color wise I played with basic cool and warm colors. On the back of each canvas, I wrote a Bible verse that gives me hope. The four are:

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Revelation 21:4 "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever."

Romans 15:13 "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Philippians 4:13 "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."

I made it so that it can be hung and that both sides can be seen if wanted. I also placed in a prominent place, so in the days when I feel hopeless, I can see that reminder of hope, along with reading the Bible verses. 

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for giving me my special gifts and talents and I pray that I can use them for your glory God. Thank you for the constant supply of love and hope that you give. Amen.

Working Hard

We all have things that we don't want to do. We feel like they are insignificant tasks that are assigned to us, and won’t affect the people around us if we do them or not. The things is that the Bible tells us twice, that everything we do we need to do it for the Lord. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” Ephesians 6:7 says, “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” There are people out there who might not notice what you have done, but God will. He sees everything, and he sees how well you did the task that was assigned to you. Ephesians 6 continues on talking about how anyone who does a good thing will receive it back. God rewards us, and even though we may not see the reward right away, it is there. Luke 6 talks about how what you give, whether gifts or the work that you do, God will give it back to you in full. God sees everything that you do, and so do other people, you may just not notice.

At the movie theater where I work, I get shifts where the only thing I do is clean the lobby, or I clean the restrooms. They are not the most glamorous jobs out there, but someone has to do them. Just think if you walked into a building how your impression of the service you are going to receive is reflected in the cleanliness of the lobby. Or think about going to a bathroom that is dirty and a mess. In both cases, if the area was dirty, it would negatively impact the experience that you have. Now I haven't had a guest come up to me a say how clean the bathrooms are, but there are guests that notice if they are dirty. Everything that we do, whether insignificant or not, has an impact, and they need to be done to the best of your abilities, and even if you feel like no one is watching or cares, God is.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for caring about us and the work that we do. I pray that you will encourage me to do my best work in everything that I do, working for you and not man. Thank you for giving back the same that I have giving Lord.  Amen.

God Will Be There Again

So this summer I got a job working at a movie theater. Going into this job, I didn’t know anyone who worked there, and it wasn’t close to my school, so there wasn’t a big chance of knowing anybody who would also be getting a job there. I went in solo, but I did slowly make friends. Then Monday night, we all worked at the same time, so we hung around and talked while we cleaned theaters, and it was one of the best nights I had working there. And because we work at a movie theater, we can go as a group and watch free movies and get free popcorn, and just hang out with after work one day.

Now for college next year, I will be going to Iowa. I’m am going to a small school, where I don’t know anybody going in. For a while I was afraid that I won’t be able to make any friends while at college. God has shown me that he has helped me before make friends at the movie theater when I wasn’t trying to make friends, so why wouldn’t he help me again when I am trying to friends with the same interests and I can have a good time with. God has helped me before, so why wouldn’t he help me later.

We all encounter things in our lives, trials, challenges, troubles, and there is a good chance that we will encounter them again. The thing is that we serve a God who is constant. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” If he has helped you before in the past, he isn’t going to change his mind and not help you in the future. He may help you in a different way, depending in the situation, and what is best for you at the time, but he is still going to help you. I can walk confidently into college, knowing that God is there, and he wants to help me, so I don’t have to be afraid that I am going to be a loner all through college.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being constant, and for helping me with what is going on in my life. I trust you in the fact that if you have helped me one, that you will help me again, maybe not in the same way, but in a way that is best for me in the situation. Thank you for being there to help me with whatever life throws at me. Amen.

Life's Obstacle Course

So I bet that some time in your life that you have ran an obstacle course. Normally in an obstacle course there are obstacles that are easier to do than others depending on who you are. What would you think if I told you that life is an obstacle course? I was doing my devotional when this verse came up, 1 Corinthians 9:24-25.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

This verse talks of a race, and an obstacle course is a race, but it is a race that is more challenging than running in a straight line. Many people have this notion in their head that when we chose to follow Christ, that our race that we are running is going to be on flat ground, and it is going to be easy. But that isn’t how it is. God says that in this world we will have trials, and each of these trials is a different obstacle that we have to overcome to continue to run the race. We face obstacles every day, and to demonstrate this, I am going to look at the obstacles that appeared just yesterday in my life.

Laziness- Woke up and was rather tired so I didn’t do much but lay on the couch and watch TV. I did eventually get up, and get working around the house, but not much was done before I went to work.

Friendliness Contest- I work at a movie theater this summer, and one of the goals is to be friendly to everybody. I just wasn’t in the mood for being friendly the whole day, so when I wanted a break, I went and cleaned the restroom, a place where I don’t have to be over the top friendly.

Staying Cool- When I got home I was tired and all I really wanted to do was to relax, but my mom had made plans for us that night. I had to try to stay cool and not get angry like I would do, and in the end I had a great time out.

Laser Focus- Before bed, I had some time to myself to organize my life and get ready for college. I was pretty focus, but every once and a while, I would get off focus for a short time. But every time I would eventually get back on track.

Now of these four obstacles that I faced yesterday, I really only passed the staying cool obstacle, and that is because I have a lot of practice of trying to overcome it. I bet if we all wrote down a list of obstacles in our life, I bet we all have our own that we can’t complete yet. The thing is that the verse above not only talks about running a race to win, but it talks about training for the race. We need to identify where our weaknesses are so that way we can train and work at overcoming that obstacle. I does take work, and this will be a race that you will run your whole life, but when you run the race for God, you will get an eternal prize, one that can never be taken away from you.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being our coach in this race we are running, and I pray that you will help me overcome the obstacle that are in my life, especially the ones that I trip up on and they cause doubt in my heart of what I am actually capable of. Thank you for loving us, even when we fail constantly at some obstacles Lord. Amen.

Breaking Through Social Media

As we all know, the media is powerful in the world that we live in. With a click of a button, we can send a message for the whole world to see, whether it be a positive or a negative message. Now if we were able to categorize all the media into two categories, positive and negative, it would most defiantly seem that there would be a ton more negative than positive. On the news majority of the stories are negative, the stories that are found on social media are negative, the conversations on the radio can be negative, etc. It is very easily to get depressed because everything seems to be going wrong in the world because that is all we focus on. But we can change that.

God called us to be the salt to the Earth and a light in the darkness. (Matthew 5:13-16) One way that we can do that is by infiltrating the media with positive messages, and positive stories. In my eyes the media is one big black whole, and we need to place little glimmers of light in it, to help people see that there is more to life than just all the bad that is happening. This could be as simple as putting an encouraging Bible verse up on social media, or writing encouraging words to a friend who may be going through a hard time. You can start a blog, or create a website that is uplifting just to name a few. There are so many things that we could do, and as being teens, we are the ones who are best equip with the ways to use social media that we can do more than an average adult could, and we can reach more people our age with encouragement. God gave each of us a set of gifts and resources and we can each use our special gifts to reach a multitude of people. So I challenge everyone who is reading this to change the things we put on social media to something that will bring light into the darkness, and give hope and encouragement to those on social media.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for giving us a way to communicate with our friends and family. Help me to put things out on social media that reflect who you are and that can bring some light into this world. Amen.

We Are Free

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, their punishment was death, and that is our punishment too. Imagine that you are sitting in a jail cell, condemned to death. If it wasn't bad enough that you are trapped in a cell, you are also chained to the wall, the chains made out of every lie that Satan has told you of who you are, who God is, ect. Jesus came to serve our death sentence, and when you believe in him, you jail cell is open and you can walk out of the sin that was with you in that cell. The thing is that you are still chained to the wall by Satan, still a prisoner to what he tells you. Jesus not only freed you from that cell, but he sent the Holy Spirit to help you change your thinking and actions to break those chains and truly set you free. 

We all struggle with this, because we all have something that is able to get under our skin and trap us in these chains. 2 Corinthians 12:7b says, "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." This is Paul writing, talking about how he, the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, deals with a thorn, something there that Satan is using to try to hold us back. If we read on in the passage, we even see Paul begging three times with God to take it away. Now we each have our own set of thorns that the devil uses to keep us bound in chains.

THINGS THAT KEEP US CHAINED DOWN

-not pretty enough                                                                          -too young

-not smart enough                                                                          -worthless

-failure                                                                                              -lack of time

-laziness                                                                                            -excuses

These are only a few things that could be a thorn in our side. We each have our own thorns, and God knows what each is for every one of us. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” God wants to help you unchain yourself, for he knows that you can’t do it alone. Paul is actually rejoicing hear, because his weakness and his chains is allowing Christ power to be with him helping him. When you allow God to help you break these chains, he is right beside you, working next to you. As Christians, we are free from the cell we were in, and we are free from the chains that hold us down, we just need to allow the Lord to do his amazing work in our lives, breaking every chain of bandage in our life.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for your Son who came down to die for us so that we may be free. I pray that you will come into my life, and break the chains that are bonding me with my past. Thank you for being perfect in my weakness, and that even in my lowest points of life, you still love me. Amen. 

Rooted- Conclusion

I know that I am ending this series a week early, but I think I have made my point, and if I continue, I will just be repetitive. I know that in a time of transition, it is hard to remain rooted in our faith, but with some effort, it can be done.

Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray that you help me to remain rooted in my faith during this time of transition. Amen.