1 Peter 5:10

"And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." 1 Peter 5:10

I have noticed, that when we as Christians have been mocked or persecuted, it makes us feel like nobody cares about us and makes you feel left out, but really we're not left out at all. We need to understand that there is absolutely no reason for us to fear people or worry about what they think. The worst thing they can do is kill us, but God Almighty can send our soul to hell for eternity. I don't know about you, but we need to fear God more than man, but not a fear of being afraid, but a fear of respect and honor. Because God loves and cares about us, why do you think He sent his Son Christ for us because it's the sin He hates, not us. Christ wants us to turn to Him and take shelter when we are persecuted, because this world is a war zone and we will be persecuted and it will make us feel alone. That's why it says in 1 Peter 5 that He will restore us and make us stronger, He will be our shelter and our comfort. He is where we should get our strength, joy, and peace, they are from Him and only Him. We are going to be persecuted like it says in 2 Timothy and the world will think of us as fools, but does it matter? Who gave you life? Who is in control of everything? Who is going to come back again and destroy this earth that everyone is so in love with? The answer is God. So we should not be afraid of what man can do, but we should lift up the name of Christ and give Him all the Glory. Because we have done nothing to deserve any kind of glory. All we do is sin, and then pray to God for forgiveness and then go right on back sinning. The amazing thing is, He forgives us, so many times have I sinned and asked for forgiveness and I know for a fact that He forgave me because in 1 John 1:9 it says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." All I can say is "Thank you Lord!" and really that is all we can say because nothing we do can ever repay Christ for what He did for us.

To God be the Glory!

Proverbs 11:13

"A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret." Proverbs 11:13

Trustworthy people are hard to come across these days because of all the gossip and lying, but someone who you can trust is a great treasure. Some people don't realize it, but gossip can hurt a lot. In Proverbs 18:8 it says that "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts." When people don't have Christ, they can get depressed pretty easy and if someone has been gossiping about them, then it just makes things worse. Gossip is more of a problem with people who talk, more than they should, but everyone as gossiped in some point of their life. Harsh words against someone can really hurt especially behind their back. That's also how rumors start and rumors can ruins some one's reputation whether the rumor is true or not. So next time you feel like gossiping about someone, say this to yourself "is gossiping about them, worth them taking their life," and if your a true Christian then the answer is No! Because people take their life all the time because they feel like the whole world is either laughing at them or that everyone hates them, so they decide to end it. Without Christ people's minds don't have that protection, joy, and peace and it is easy for the devil to get in their head and mess things up. The point I'm trying to get across is that many of us Christians hurt people with our words and yet were the ones who are suppose to be lifting others up. That is why you should give God praise for your friends who are trustworthy and you know they won't gossip about you. Because those kind of people are hard to find these days.

To God be the Glory!

1 Peter 4:12-14

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange is happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the spirit of glory and of God rest on you."

1 Peter 4:12-14

A lot of the time, we as Christians don't think of the word suffer to be a good thing, but to suffer for Christ is the greatest thing a Christian can go through for his Master, God Almighty. The thing is, if the world don't see the difference in us, then they have no need to persecute us, which means we are living like the world and not like Christ. When you suffer it could be physical pain or emotional pain, you could be beaten, thrown in prison, killed or just mocked, put down by others, and not having popularity. We should rejoice when we go through these sufferings because we're suffering for Christ which means we're serving the God who gave us life and He looks down and says "Good job my good and faithful servant." That should be the only thing that matters in a Christians life, to be able to hear those words come out of the mouth of God Almighty. And yet we sit at the house watching tv, playing sports, driving in our nice car, caring about our reputation, rather than the God who spoke and everything was put into place. We should be so ashamed of ourselves, because we have denied Him over and over again, and yet he still forgives. That is why we must suffer because he suffered for us. We are so worthless and yet he suffered so much for us and every time we deny him, it's just like we spit in the bloody face of Christ and say "we don't care what you did for us." That's exactly what we do when we deny him and turn to the world. And when we call back for forgiveness, He looks down at us and says three amazing words "I Forgive you." All I can say is Wow! what grace and mercy that our God has for us selfish beings. We should praise God like Paul and Silas did when they went through suffering in prison. In 1 Peter 4:16 says "However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." We need to rejoice and not curse God when we are persecuted because we bear the name of Christ, which should be the greatest honor, since He's the Creator of the universe! Just remember next time you get persecuted for your faith or things just don't go your way, that you don't even deserve to be alive and yet Christ has given you so much. How Great is our God!

To God be the Glory!

Forgiven

"I'm in our secret place, alone in Your embrace, where all my wrongs have been erased, You have forgiven. All the promises and lies, all the times I've compromised all the times You were denied, You have forgiven."

Forgiven by Skillet

Psalm 119:11

"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you"

Psalm 119:11

What a great verse to remember and live by, if only we would live by it. We must read and memorize scripture if we are going to get through this spiritual war. Not only will it help when you are telling others about Christ, but also through Christ you will be able to conquer the temptations that the devil's demons throw at you. That's what it means when it says "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you". Because if we know God's law and His Word we are not going to want to sin or have anything to do with sin. Our minds will be pure and we will have understandings that others just don't have, because they are not in His Word, which makes them deceived. We will start to see through the lies when we pick up God's Word and dig in. God's Word is like our map or instructions for life and without it we will start to believe the world side of things and not God's. We will not have that understanding and won't be able to see through the lies that are put out by the world. This is why we need to hide God's word in our heart and use daily in our life.

To God be the Glory!