Change from the inside out!

TODAY'S DAILY...

In our world today, we truly make it seem painful, strenuous, and down right uncomfortable to change an area of our lives.

Look at the thought of losing weight, people have the DESIRE to change, but when it comes to breaking habits or changing a lifestyle, it just seems too difficult!

Proverbs 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

I think the reason it is so dif...ficult to change is because we try to do it backwards! According to the scripture in Proverbs, in order to change, we must first see ourselves on the inside how we want to look on the outside.

Don't like what you see on the outside? Change your inside.

? for today...are you trying to make the outside good enough before you surrender your whole heart?

Pursue God and when He changes your inside, lasting change will appear on the outside.

LACED WITH GRACE...mirror, mirror on the wall

Today I shared the following devotion with the readers of Laced With Grace, For other great devotions, log onto www.lacedwithgrace.com ....

One of the worst things a girl has in her room is a mirror. The reflection that she sees often times is not a true assessment of how God sees her. As a pastors wife, I have seen many young girls struggle with this.

Low self esteem.

Unfortunately, many young girls do not get victory over this and they take the insecurities of  youth into their adult life. How we see ourselves, what we think about ourselves, how we feel about ourselves, and how well we accept ourselves will largely determine what we put into and get out of life. If we look in our mirror and see ourselves as having little worth, we will never achieve the God-given potential that He has placed within us. However if we see ourselves as having great value, (not in a prideful way), but value as in how God sees and accepts us, we will, with God’s help, be able to reach and achieve our God-given life potential.

If we had a bar of iron, it would be easy to make some nails out of it, and it would be worth a few dollars. If we took that same iron and made it into weight bearing posts, it would be worth much more. If we could refine it and make it into stainless steel pots, how much more would it be worth? If we refined it even more, took out all of its impurities and used it to make finely tuned space age rocket engines, it would be worth a fortune!

Life is really like the iron. The potential is really up to us. If we believe in ourself, with God’s help and his “refining fire” (plus a lot of hard work), we can become the person God envisions us to be. We will then be able to fulfill our God-given life purpose.

What is important is not how or where we got started in life but how and where we finish! So next time you take a look in the mirror, try not to focus on the flaws and imperfections, instead see how God is going to use those flaws and imperfections for His purpose. We Will never be able to go out in the world and love others and see their beauty if we cannot accept what we see in our own mirror.

 “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than this.” (Mark 12:31)

 PRAYER: “Dear God, please help me to see and accept myself as you see and accept me, and put me through your ‘refining fire’ so that I will reach and achieve my total God-given potential for Your glory. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer.” AMEN.

LACED WITH GRACE...The perfect way to say I LOVE YOU!

Today I shared the following devotion with the readers over at LACED WITH GRACE..

It is so funny to me as I look down the greeting card aisle at Walmart, to see grown men lined up and down the aisle just staring ahead, eyes glazed over, trying to find the perfect card that expresses their undying love for their sweetie.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and people are rushing around trying to find the “perfect” way to say “I love you!” Nowadays, there are many creative and beautiful cards that say it all. Some are quiet and some will play your favorite song when it is opened. If you can’t say “I love you” with a card, how about some roses or a box of chocolate or diamonds?

So many choices to help us prove our love to someone. While I do think that most women do enjoy and appreciate a rose, or a card and perhaps some delicious chocolates or a sparkling diamond, such gifts that come with no meaning behind them, have absolutely no purpose!

There are plenty of people who misunderstand love, it is not about a special day. Love isn’t even about giving gifts. Love is a verb. Action. Actions really do speak louder than words. There has never been a clearer example of this than the act of love extended to us on the cross. With arms stretched open, the act of love was expressed thru the act of dying.

God’s love is clearly defined by actions!

Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

The Bible states that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), His Word tells us that He created everything in love. Everything about love originates with Him and is based upon Him. Sorry folks, cupid DID NOT invent love! Actually, God’s desire for such a love relationship began even before the world was created. but God’s love is not bound by OUR committment to Him, instead God’s love is bound by WHO God is.

God is never unfaithful. He never lies. He never changes. His love is everlasting and steadfast. His love is genuine, unlike man’s love, that sometimes is selfish and self seeking and forgotten.

Valentine’s Day is really over commercialized. Merchants are trying to sell us on what gift is best to show our love. If only all those glossy eyed Valentine customers would realize that the best expression of love has already been written and it cannot be found in Hallmark. The best love gift anyone could give this Valentines Day is the book of love, written by God Himself.

As you look toward Valentine’s Day tomorrow and you ask yourself, “What does love got to do with it?” - Remember, it has EVERYTHING to do with it! This great gift of love cannot be baked, cannot be bought or even smelt, all we can do is unwrap it and rejoice in it!

This is what love is: it is not that we  have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which  our sins are forgiven.   1John 4:10

DAILY DEVO...blessing or cursing?

TODAY'S DAILY...

At some point in every persons life, something or someone will come along that we will have no control over or we will wish things could be different.

At that time, we will experience every emotion, from disappointment to despair....

When this happens, we literally stand at a crossroad. We literally stand at a point where we have to make a choice...what will we do with this opportunity?

Will we embrace it and thank God for the dark hour that will strengthen us in the long run or will we choose to be angry, resentful and bitter over something we have no control of?

That ONE choice has the power to change our lives for good or change it for evil. Which road we take is really up to us.

Deuteronomy 30:19 "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life."

? for today...which will it be for you today...blessing or cursing?

We can choose to be bitter (death) or to be better (life). Please choose wisely, your life depends upon it!

TODAY'S DEVO...the real deal!

Sometimes it is hard to get to know someone.

Alot of people pretend to be someone they are not. Most of us could probably say that we have been burned by someone who we thought we knew. But it turned out, we didn't....

How I get to know someone is just spending time with them. It is only a matter of time before I truly see what makes them tick.

Making choices is like making friends. We just have to weed out the bad ones from the good.

The only way we will know the difference between good choices and bad is by spending time with God. If we don't spend time with Him, we won't know Him. And if we don't know Him, we won't be able to decipher what is pretend and what is the real deal. And if we can't recognize the real deal, we will fall for anything and consequently make a wrong choice.

? for today...when is the last time you experienced the real deal?

If you want to recognize truth, you have to know Truth. Know Jesus. He IS Truth!

LACED WITH GRACE...Vending Machine Faith

TODAY, I HAVE SHARED THE FOLLOWING DEVOTION WITH THE READERS OF LACED WITH GRACE. THIS IS A SITE THAT HAS WONDERFUL DEVOTIONS DAILY...GO CHECK IT OUT www.lacedwithgrace.com

Have you ever told God to “prove Himself”?

“OKAY, GOD, I’m going to give you a chance to prove yourself.”

When I was a child, I use to lay in bed and pray to God to give me certain things. I would lay in bed, with my hands tightly folded, and say things like  “I really want to believe in you, God. So when I wake up in the morning, if there’s a thousand dollars (insert anything I was wanting) under my bed, I will know that You are real.”

Never failed, no matter how many times I prayed that or no matter what materialistic thing I was wanting, nothing ever appeared under my bed.

I never understand as a child, why there was not enough room under my bed for all of my requests. But as an adult, I soon realized that prayers were so much more than just my demands of God, and who was I to think that God was nothing more than a mere vending machine?

Like I could just deposit my prayer, push the desired button and WHAM! Get exactly what I wanted. No, that is not how it worked. Too many childhood myths had me fooled, afterall, God was not like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. Not everything on MY list was on God’s list.

I’m afraid that many people are still like me when I was younger, they are looking under the bed for their answered prayers. And when they don’t get what they seem to think they need, they question God and His Power. Despite what they may believe, God DOES love to answer prayer. He may not leave the answers under our bed, but He does hear our cry and He promises that He will hear us.

“While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” (Isaiah 65:24).

Prayer cannot be used as a coin in a vending machine though, and faith cannot be a button that we select according to our desires. God will not cave into our whims and wishes. God is bigger than that. In fact, He is God the Almighty, He longs for His children to come to Him and wait upon Him and His purpose.

When we stop going to God like a vending machine, we will be able to have the confidence in knowing that He has only the best for us. When we trust Him for our needs, we will never be empty. Vending machines run out of candy from time to time, but God’s love will never run out on us!

 REFLECTION: Do you look under the bed for your answer or do you simply trust Him for all that you are in need of? Perhaps it is time to put a “out of order” sign on your vending machine and deposit your faith and prayers in God. He will hear you.

TODAY'S DAILY...it isn't the Mona Lisa!

TODAY'S DAILY...

Most of you probably have never seen the famous painting of the Mona Lisa. I'm sure you have seen replicas in books or in television. But unless you have actually walked the hall at the Louvre Musuem in Paris, you have only seen copies. Not the original.

The Mona Lisa is unique. I know, because I've personally seen it.

It's one of a kind, much like our God.There is none like Hi...m!

Makes me wonder why we wait in long lines at football games, concerts and yes, even famous musuems to worship people and things but we have a hard time giving God Almighty praise that He is due.

Exodus 20:3 says "Do not worship other gods besides Me."

? for today...When is the last time you recognized the beauty and worth of the Masters Hand?
The Mona Lisa has nothing on God!! Don't neglect to see His worth!