Being real

I was watching a sermon titled "Suffering in Silence" by Cornelius Lindsey and I couldn't help but feel so convicted. He mentioned about as we say so many things in our testimony and with our actions etc that make us seem like we have the perfect life but in reality we are silently suffering from something, which we need to be open about. People who are suffering are looking for someone to relate to and we need to be actively showing love to these people and opening up to others, we are not above anyone. We need to see eye to eye to people. We have come in to the knowledge of Jesus and this gift is purely his own, we didn't add anything to it we accepted it because God gave us the Holy Spirit to see our need to (see Ephesians 2:8). Even now all the good work in us is purely the work of God and he is changing us to be more like Him as believers. I am not perfect on any level appearances can be fooling we can think from the outside that a person has everything. But if you take a look at the heart you can see how messed up we are. (see 1 Samuel 16:7)
I just want to encourage you today that if you are suffering in silence to seek Jesus I suffer with many things too and I think the best thing to do is for us to pray that we would genuinely and truly find your joy, hope and peace in God and that Jesus would be your foundation of life and that nothing would replace that foundation because one day everything will be made known the pretending and everything will be exposed (see Luke 8:17, Matthew 10:26, Mark 4:22) so why fake it (see Habbakuk 2:3) 
God bless you, 
Jaleen :)

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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 :)

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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.  

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

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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 :)

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Why does God seek His own glory?

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:3 KJV

Because God is unique and all glorious and totally self-sufficient, He must be for Himself if He is to be for us. God is without flaw, He is not self-seeking or selfish. On the contrary, He is perfect in every way He humbled and gave Himself as a ransom for us out of pure love and in order for there to be a way for us to be saved (see Acts 4:12).  We have to believe that He is sufficient which He is. So because He is totally sufficient and perfect in every way he deserves all our glory. Our LORD God Almighty is a God of truth and He cannot lie or deny the truth, He is truth and so He must receive all our glory because He is the only source of complete righteousness and truth and the only source of joy. Put it this way if God gave up His glory to another it would not be right because there is no other who can excel Him or can even come near to His love, power, grace, mercy and truth. Because God is love He must pursue the praises and hearts of his people so that He can redeem them because He is truth and the only way he is fully deserving of our praise. So let us give Him all our praise and thank Him for his great love and for everything He has done for us with a thankful heart and instead of thinking why does God seek His own glory we should rather be marveling at the fact that the God of the universe inhabits praise from mere men on earth such as myself!

Be encouraged,

Jaleen x

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What does it mean to love money?

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24

I've read this passage many times before and thought to myself I have never really loved money. But something God revealed to me is that loving money isn't always loving the paper money or the coins the love of money is love for the things it buys such as possessions, security. Anything that money can buy that you seek security in rather than God or his word is the love of money. We need to be seeking God to be our all instead of pleasures and things which I know I struggle with at times. The love of money comes when we are not content with what we have (see Heb 13:5, Ecc 5:10) so let us be content with what we have and look at all that God has given us with thankfulness. Remember that all that is on earth is certainly passing away and that earthly wealth will mean nothing when Christ comes again (see Matt 6:19-21) because He will come in the twinkling of an eye (see 1 Corinthians 15:52) and we must be ready and found to be doing what Christ called us to do and not be found sleeping spiritually. (see Mark 13:36) .
Your soul is the most valuable thing on this earth and until you give your life to Christ you don't realize its value because this earth is passing away and we don't want to get so caught up that we lose sight of why we are here. Everyone has a purpose in Christ and until you stop chasing after everything else, nothing will change. Let us seek God first in all that we do and willingly draw near to Him in prayer and in Jesus' name asking for a content heart and a renewed mind (see James 5:16)
Be encouraged,
Jaleen x

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What is Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12:32

Many times I have actually cried and been so anxious about this verse and thought to myself thinking I was guilty of this. In my heart I know that Jesus is my Lord and I love God-The Father, Son and Holy Spirit and I feel like there are times that my mind sets itself up against God and in the past I've hated myself for this. This verse may make genuine believers think that if they have said a cuss word or something then they have committed this sin but we have to dig deeper the true meaning is different. 

First of all we have to realize that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one (3 in 1) so if you say a word against the Holy Spirit, you have also spoken against the Son and the Father too. Note that Jesus says sin against the Son of Man will be forgiven but speaking against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. To understand what it means to speak against the Holy Spirit in this verse you have to understand what the role of the Holy Spirit is:

The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus (see 1 John 5:6) so if someone deliberately rejects Jesus' Testimony they are saying that what the Holy Spirit testifies to is wrong and they are speaking against the Holy Spirit and they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

The reason that these people cannot be saved is not because the sin is to big for Jesus to forgive but rather that they will never be saved because they have rejected the only way to be saved and they will never come to Jesus for forgiveness. Don't get me wrong though speaking against the Holy Spirit or God is still wrong and it is sin which can be forgiven by Jesus. No sin is to big for Jesus to forgive but if we reject Jesus' testimony there is no way for us to be forgiven.

So let us draw near to God and repent of our sins in the name of Jesus whilst there is still time. 

Be encouraged 

Jaleen x

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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

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