Not of the world (1): Lust

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 1 John 2:15-16

The enemy can deceive us as Christians in many ways and we need to be on our guard at all times by reading our word, praying. We also must pray that we are clothed with the Armour of God so that we are able to fight against any spiritual attack (see Ephesians 6:10-20).

The enemy's attacks are not always blatant to us though which is why we must pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us in all that we do and to give us discernment and we really must be reading the Word of God daily. The enemy will try to disguise himself as an angel of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14).

Jesus showed us a perfect example of overcoming temptation and He shows that knowing the word is essential to overcome the enemy's attacks (see Matthew 4:1-11). The enemy doesn't come with red horns but he disguises himself in sinful desires and things that tempt us and draw us away from God. He comes to us in the form of temptation. Let us pray that we will remain firm in the faith and that we will resist any temptation and that we would have a clear understanding of God's will and that his will would be done in our lives and that we will submit ourselves wholly to Him and have a desire for Him alone. Pray this in Jesus' name.

God bless you! 

Jaleen :)

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The storm of life

24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. Luke 8:22-25

In Luke 8:22-25 the disciples encounter a storm, despite the fact that some of them were  fishermen which means they had been at sea many times, the disciples were described as being in jeopardy. (see Luke 8:23) See it doesn't matter how experienced we are at things sometimes experience doesn't cut it. We cannot control the waves and turn of every point of our lives as much as we think we can or as experienced as we think we are we will always fall short. For example, if you have an athlete who is competing in a sport lets say racing, they are experienced in this area, they train, they eat well, they get enough sleep and then the big day comes it only takes one unfortunate event such as an injury to destroy all their efforts and the situation becomes a disaster. You see no-one can plan the direction of their life. No one can eliminate all their weaknesses likewise no-one can control the storms of life only Jesus can, its not about us controlling the storm our way no matter how much we know or think we know by experience (i.e. to remove the injury) Jesus brings calm in a completely different way and by a different approach and that is by faith in Him not what we see and it is only Jesus who is capable of producing a great calm from a raging storm. (Luke 8:24)

When we trust Jesus through whatever we are going through (life) by faith and give Him our all, He will produce a great calm even if the way does not seem most favorable, remember as believers we live by faith and not sight. (see 2 Corinthians 5:7)

God bless you

Jaleen :) 

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Day 2 - The worries of tomorrow

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

At times throughout the day I find myself getting so caught up in daily life that I miss out on my quiet time with God and I'm running on the fumes of God's word. Its so easy to worry about all the things that need doing in daily lives and Jesus understands this, He understands how easy it is for us to get caught up in worrying about what we will eat and how much to eat and what it is best to eat and drink and everything that we must do tomorrow and in our human lives and he tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry. He tells us not to worry about these things because they are not very important and your salvation doesn't depend on what we eat or how healthy or unhealthy we are in what we eat or drink there are more deeper things we should be avoiding like sexual immorality see 1 Corinthians 6:13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. You may be thinking but how do I stop worrying its easier said than done! 

The answer is in Phillipians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The way to experience the peace of God is to pray to him he told us to present our requests to him. God is a loving God, he cares about us, he wants us to remain in contact with him which is why he tells us to pray in every situation. Let us therefore draw near to his throne with our prayers and requests not forgetting however to come with thanksgiving for all that He is and has already provided by his amazing grace for us in Christ Jesus. 

Be encouraged, 

Jaleen

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Day 1 - Heed the warning

 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

Recently I was travelling in someone else's car and as we were travelling there were lots of signs and markers to show that there had been a diversion ahead due to roadworks or obstruction to the road but there were many signs and diversion routes that you had to obey to make it to the next clear road and avoid being stuck. I noticed that there was a long queue ahead where people had missed one of the signs and had failed to see the diversion sign and they had become stuck in traffic queues it became quite a mess. It reminded me immediately of a believers walk with Christ and convicted me of my own walk, often there are times where God will show us to do something which may seem small or unimportant to us he gives us warnings and we just ignore them and continue expecting to grow in our walk or for it to have no effect but the more we do this and continue ignoring these "small" things the bigger the consequences become. These things then become harder deal with and we may find ourselves becoming stuck in a bad situation all because we decided that our own way was better. Its time to heed the warning and turn to God, He knows better than what we know of ourselves (Matthew 10:30) and has our best interest at heart. I encourage whoever you may be to let go of your own will and surrender to God in whatever it is God is leading you to.

Pray this with me

"Lord I am fed up of going my own way in life and falling short of you. I just pray that you would forgive me of my sins and help me to walk in your way and for your blessed Spirit to guide me. Help me to surrender my will in all things and take up your will for my life instead of my own. Help me daily to carry my cross and follow you. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."
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Self Dependence

Hello and welcome to my new blog! 
God has been showing me recently that I don't pray enough in times where I am going through hard situations or temptation I often feel to take the matter into my own hands because I want control, I want to sort out the situation in my own strength and to be independent and then come in prayer and thanksgiving to God afterwards but God has been showing me recently that this approach wrong because its self dependence instead of God dependence and it leads to self praise 2 Corinthians 3:5 (NIV) Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. This means that we, as Christians need to be depending on God instead of ourselves in hard times if we depend on ourselves in hard times we are tempted to claim the glory of being able to depend on ourselves you may be thinking how do I depend on God? One verse that has really come to me during hardship and desire to pursue my own way is Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. We seek the Kingdom of God first by putting our hope in Christ and seeking his word before anything else that means coming to him in prayer and reading before giving thought to any other worldly ideas and pursuits. When Jesus then says in this passage all these things shall be added unto you He is talking about the all of the worries of life. He understands that we will be tempted to worry and he tells us not to in Matthew 6:25-34 He tells us why we should not worry because God is in control of everything so the more we put dependence on our own control the more we will fall into worry. So today instead of pursuing our own solution to life's calamities remember God understands more than anything you even understand about yourself! Please take time to pray about seeking God's will instead of seeking your own will and your own dependence which will only lead you to worry. 
God Bless you all, love in Christ alone
Jaleen 
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