What really matters?

33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Luke 12:33

15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15

Sometimes in my Christian walk I wonder get annoyed when something isn't changing in my life when I have prayed about it a lot. What I am learning though is that what is most important is not what happens now in my physical life but it is where I am in my spiritual life. What God led me to in scripture was Mark 2.
In Mark 2:1-12 A paralyzed man comes through the roof to be healed by Jesus. Jesus saw the faith he had in Him yet Jesus, out of love, didn't heal him of his physical needs first because that was not as important as his spiritual condition. The most important thing that the paralyzed man needed to know was that he was that Jesus had come to forgive his sins. (see Mark 2:5) To prove that He had authority to forgive sins he then heals the man. (see Mark 2:10) But the latter is not more important than the first thing that Jesus did which was to forgive the man of his sins which is the greatest gift anyone could give.
So today instead of focusing on all the bad things and struggles in life, let us give thanks, worship and praise to God for giving us forgiveness which enables us to have a new life which is hidden in God and will be so much better than this life! (see 1 Corinthians 2:9)
Be encouraged,
Jaleen x
P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Day 4 - Thanksgiving

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's 

will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This letter in which this verse was given was for believers and gave them instruction on how to live and these believers were warned by Paul that the day of the Lord was coming but he tells them that it should not take them by surprise. Later on he tells the believers what God's will is for those in Christ Jesus which is shown in the verse above notice he tells us to rejoice always and to pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances this can be hard sometimes and we have rough days where we are genuinely feeling discouraged and these commands that seem simple when everything is going well in our eyes but become so hard to apply in the midst of trials, big decisions or non christian environments. So how can we do these things in these hard times? If we look at the following verses we need to fix our eyes on Jesus (see Hebrews 12: 1-2) when we fix our eyes on Jesus we begin to see people in a new perspective and when we submit to God we will find it easier to rejoice and be thankful and pray. We also need to be fixing our eyes on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable which is everything that God is (see Phillipians 4:8) and often in hard times we are focusing on the opposite of these things when we take our eyes off God and to the world and our focus becomes on those things which are false, ignoble, wrong, impure and horrible thoughts. When we fix our eyes upon God and realize our dependence on Him we truly can pray continually even by frequent small prayers throughout the day.

Disclaimer I really do recommend reading these verses in context to get the overall view and not just an out of context verse because these verses are aimed at specific people and situations sometimes and I really want you to understand what God is saying to you as you read each mini devotion.

Be encouraged

Jaleen x