In Christ alone

13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Phillipians 4:13

13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13

From the verses above, highlighted in bold are the things which show how we owe all of our glory for doing good to God. It is a false idea to think that any of our works are our own doing. As much a you think you are capable of doing good without God you cannot. Yes thats right, it is God who enables us to do good we can do no good without him. You may be thinking I know many people who do good without God but that is not right because the good we do without God is not really good but it has a catch to it or some condition. Likewise we can't truly love without God because God is the only true love. The world's idea of doing good and true love is most distorted. So we need to know God's great works and love and reconnect with Him by his Holy Spirit or else the world's ways will influence us. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus and making use of our most powerful tool we have which is prayer. People may disagree with what we tell them but they cannot dampen our prayers.

Not everyone is going to like you! (Word of encouragement)

I am not perfect but I think sometimes  as believers its easy to play the 'I'm perfect' card which I know I am guilty of. When people see you they think you have no issues or problems and that life is all fine and dandy. But they don't see behind the scenes we need to be careful that we are being genuine as Christians but at the same time we are not to be of the world (see Romans 12:2) which can be hard but not impossible (see Phillipians 4:13). I know for myself I find it difficult to express myself because I know my opinions will not be popular. But I am learning that no matter how much you try and fit in and no matter how much you keep in your opinions there is always someone who will dislike you. There will be always someone who hates you. I remind myself of the weather - it may be a beautiful sunny day yet there will be always someone who complains and doesn't like it. As the body of Christ we all need to get over this, and i'm not being harsh because I include myself. Even if everyone hates you just know that Jesus loves you and as the body of Christ we love you we are called to love one another. All these things are so temporary compared to what Jesus has promised and remember Jesus was talking about the pharisees popularity so don't be fooled into thinking it makes you right with God (see Luke 6:26) and also (see James 4:4). Jesus understands us he faced every temptation we face yet he didn't sin, He is totally able to relate with us so roll you cares to Him, and praise Him today remember His beautiful promise (see John 16:33).
God bless you, 
Jaleen :)

Want to know the gospel and how to be saved by Christ? click here

Don't get distracted but endure

12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. James 1:12

As believers we must be continuing in our faith so that we may grow and mature in it (see my blog on maturing here). To continue in our faith we must endure temptation which means we may suffer and it may be long suffering but whatever it is we must endure, we must not get distracted by the temptation, we must not give into the temptation but we must endure it. It may be hard but there is a reward for enduring the temptation which surpasses the hardship of the endurance. This reward is the crown of life and it is promised to those who love him.

As believers who love Christ this verse can be helpful in times of suffering which requires endurance - just imagine receiving the crown of life promised by the Lord to you because you love him and endured temptation for His name's sake. Let us pray the to the Lord that we will not fall into temptation but rather we would endure it for His name's sake. Take time out to understand this prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 and then when you're ready pray it to God who will hear you in Heaven do not pray it as a repetition but pray it out of a genuine heart to do His will.

God bless you,

Jaleen :)

P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Good news: yes, YOU can be saved too!

THE FALL (sin separates man from God)

1. Adam was the first human being and together with his wife Eve they sinned against God by going against God's command and we all were born into sin from this point. (see Genesis 3:6)

2. We are all sinners and we all willingly sinned we loved it (see John 3:19)

3. Our sin separates us from the loving God (Romans 3:23)

            

 THE GOSPEL (the good news)

1. God because He is full of love gave his only begotten Son who payed the price for every sin that we ever committed and will ever commit.

2. If you repent (turn away from pursuing sin and start pursuing Jesus) and believe in Jesus by faith you will be saved. (see John 3:16)

3. And to them who receive Him, Jesus gave you the right to become sons of God! (see John 1:12)

There was no other way for us to be saved no way and God did not have to provide a way rather out of his love and his abundant grace and mercy gave His own son for us.You have been given a free ticket to life will you accept it or reject it?

The choice is yours.

God bless you,

Jaleen :)

Consistency

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 

Matthew 4:1-2

I know something that I struggle with is consistency and its not good to be inconsistent. As believers we are called to be consistent in our faith to endure trials, resist temptations, to be fervent in prayer and to continuously rejoicing.

Jesus demonstrates the perfect example of consistency in Matthew 4:1-11.

Throughout His life, Jesus is consistent in prayer, teaching, love, perseverance and faith just to name a few. Even though He came to earth fully human He was perfect and consistent in every way. This passage shows that He was consistent in overcoming temptation, consistent in God and consistent in faith. He was not overcome by evil but consistently overcame evil with good, as we are called to do (see Romans 12:2). When you feel inconsistent or as if you are not worth enough there is only one person we need to look to and that is Jesus. Maybe you are thinking but how? In a world jam-packed with all its evil wordly desires that are the opposite of what God requires how can we keep our eyes focused on Jesus. By prayer and spending time rooted in his word. Instead of seeking all the wordly desires which will never fill you spend time with God. Read devotions, listen to sermons that truly preach the Gospel and have thier foundation in the Bible, but most importantly pray God is full of grace and mercy waiting for you to come with loving arms but don't take this for granted there comes a time when He is coming back to judge, he is loving and has been patient with you. (see 2 Peter 3:9) Its your choice let Jesus in, believe in Him today. Time is running out.

God bless, Jaleen.  

 Please make time to watch this youtube sermon 

 God speaking through His servant I was really convicted by it and God wants you to be saved from the wrath to come.

Click here for more about Christianity or if you want to be saved!

Are you Maturing?

11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:11-14

To grow and mature in our faith and our walk with Christ as believers in Jesus we need to be actively practicing what we have learnt from God's word and applying it to our lives. The first stage we make is to accept the foundations of God's word to become a believer and that is the great Gospel (see John 3:16) in doing this we then live to serve God. The Holy Spirit guides us and shows us our need for Christ and shows us truths about Him. To grow as believers we need to feed of the word and keep applying it to each and every area of our lives. An analogy which helped me was this: Imagine a new born baby it must keep feeding off its milk to grow and as it does so it gets an appetite for the milk. This principle can be applied to us as believers, the more we read and feed of the word applying it to our lives the more we will grow and get a spiritual appetite for God's word. (see 1 Peter 2:2-3) We need to replace worldly desires (jealousy, malice,lying etc) that stunt our growth (see 1 Corinthians 3:1-3) with God's word and the application of it to our lives. Discernment is key for distinguishing between what is right and wrong and if you feel you don't have this quality then pray to God to give you wisdom and discernment. Let us come to God for forgiveness confessing our sins and asking him for wisdom and discernment so that we can use them to bring glory to God in our lives and fulfill his will. (James 5:16)

Be blessed,

Jaleen :)

P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Day 6: Make use of God's Armour

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:14-17

Every day we need to pray to be clothed with the armor of God so that we can resist any spiritual attack and so we can stand when the day of evil comes. Eph 6:11-13 

But something God was showing me the other day was that when a soldier prepares for battle he clothes himself with armor and he is prepared to fight. However what good is it if he stands against his opposition clothed with all his armor (his shield his sword and the rest) but doesn't use it? We need to use our armor which we have been given. 

Our sword which is our attacking weapon is the word of God which we need to be reading and living by and it is the sharpest sword there is! (see Hebrews 12:4)

Our helmet of salvation and salvation is found in none other except Jesus (see Acts 4:12)

Our belt of truth, we live by the Spirit of truth (see John 3:20-21)

Our feet fitted with the readiness to spread the gospel (see Matt 24:14)

Our shield of faith which is in Christ Jesus (what He has done and is yet going to do in our lives) (see Hebrews 12:2)

Our breastplate of righteousness which is the righteousness we have in Jesus Christ (see Psalm 106:3)

Let us pray,

Lord Almighty, I pray that you would clothe us with your armor, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the belt of truth and our feet with the readiness to spread your Gospel and that you would help us to use your armour to bring Glory to your most Holy name. Please help those of us who are are saved to continue in you and for those who are not saved to come into the knowledge of the savior Jesus and to know that salvation is found in His name only. Help us in our weaknesses to come to you and to remove any hindrances and let us devote ourselves to you. Bind Satan I pray. In Jesus name I pray this prayer, Amen

Be encouraged, 

Jaleen x

P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Day 3 - Struggling

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives lifehas set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

This morning I was reading a devotional from an app on my phone and I felt to share what I read as it really spoke to me. It was talking about how powerful elephants are when they are fully grown yet it only takes a small rope to restrain one of these great creatures without the elephant even trying to break free. This happens because from the time the elephant is young he is tied to a large tree by a rope and no matter how hard it strains and pulls maybe for weeks or months the rope has such control over it the elephant gives up. 

And when it reaches its full strength and size, the elephant will not even try to get free it still believes it is still held captive and as if it can't break free. And isn't it the same with us? Satan uses the same trick to hold us captive. We have been freed by Jesus from sin if we truly are in Christ Jesus and walk according to the Spirit yet we can still feel bound. We need to fix our eyes on Christ and reflect on His sacrifice for us and how he took away all our sin if we truly want to be free. 

Be encouraged,

Jaleen