P.S. God wins

1 Corinthians 12:14-15 "Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, 'I m not a part of the body because I am not a hand,' that does not make it any less a part of the body." God made us specifically for certain actions, and we need to learn to become content with what Gods will is for us, because if we aren't content with what our purpose is more than likely you aren't completing His work. When we don't follow in the will that God has planned for us we miss out on the great things that He wanted to show us and teach and grow in us. Instead we feel useless because nothing is going right because all of our energy is then focused on comparing Gods will for our life with His will for others which then leads to destruction. But God gives grace to us in those moments. Just because we wished that His will for us was different doesn't mean that He wont take you back and continue to use you in the way He planned originally. Lik...

Romans 15:1 "We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves." When our eyes are focused on just our selves we end up not even thinking about how others might feel about certain situations, and think that if I'm fine with it then others must be also or they need to learn to be okay with it. But that's not always the case because we don't know whats truly going on in every ones lives and we don't know what God is working on in that person. This goes back to when I was younger and my mom would say "think before you speak" we shouldn't just say whatever comes to our minds without first thinking about how others might take it. It can be hard to be sensitive to certain things when your whole life it hasn't been a problem. But this is where we need to continue to die to self more and look out side of your self because you could be witnessing to others without even knowing i...

Galatians 5:13 "For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." How great is God to give us the chance to live in freedom, and when we have this freedom so much of the times we run back to what once chained us and captured us. Or when we recognize that God gave us freedom and we see it as a pass to do what ever we want because we know that we will be forgiven and given grace again. That's not a way to live, it leads to emptiness, confusion, and bitterness as to why God would do this to us if we are followers of Him. Instead we need to use our freedom wisely, always going back to the Lord and listening to what He wants us to do. When we use our freedom to honor the Lord it takes our eyes off ourselves and puts it onto what others need. When our eyes are off our-self we see more of the beauty and works that God is doing all around us,...

1 Corinthians 9:22 "When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some." This is showing that it is important to be able to sympathize and relate with people so that people see that you are trying to build relationships with them and show Christ through that. Not just being a bible thump-er but actually caring about them. We always try to make others change to be more like us when in reality it should be us who changes, we don't need to change per-say but have more of an understand of where people are coming from and be able to relate to them not just judge them. It says doing every thing I can to save some, how often do we not go all out because it could cause us to go out of our way and we just stop. When God is asking for all of us in every moment to be His vessels. We should care about every one because God cares about every one in every...

Ephesians 5:21 " Submitting to one another out of the fear for God." Were supposed to fear God and I didn't think that one of the ways would be by submitting and respecting one another. At times it can be very hard to want to submit to others and having to obey and respect them because we think our way is better or they are just annoying you that day, but this is a good reminder because we need to look out for what others need and if they are in authority over us, we should obey them with a great full heart. This seems so simple, God is just wanting us to get along with one another and have respect for each others opinions. But how easily do we get into little arguments and fights between one another and let it give you a bad attitude for the rest of the day causing you to be harsh to others and in the end not pleasing God. Then after all is said and done you realize you didn't have your mind set on the Lord and you weren't truly fearing the Lord based off your ac...

Hebrews 13:17 " Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for our benefit." God has put people in our lives for a reason especially those that are spiritual leaders. It can be hard at times to want to obey them because you're worried that they are only looking out for their own interests. But we need to trust not only them but God that they truly are looking out for you and want the best for you. So when they give constructive criticism even though it can be hard to take we need to realize that it's to grow us into the person that God is wanting us to become so we need to accept it with the attitude of changing.

Ephesians 6:1 and Colossians 3:20 " Children, obey you parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." This seems like such a simple verse that would be so easy to follow. In reality its not as easy as it seems. So often we fight tooth and nail with our parents over the stupidest things, and the conflict only leads to punishment and separation in your relationship. I see this verse as God not only asking us to obey our parents but to obey Him at the same time, because He put them in authority over us on purpose, and we need to respect that. Also when we learn to respect and obey our earthly parents its easier to trust and obey God our heavenly father. When we so simply respond to what our parents are asking of us with a good attitude it brings Gods joy, how simple is that to please the Lord, just obey. When I was growing up my parents were strict, and my brothers and I would fight against their rules, which caused a lot of pain in our family. But when we grew up some i...

Romans 6:16 "Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living." How easy is it for us to become a slave of something and not realize it tell later. We have a choice it says and most of the times we choose everything besides God without even knowing it. But when we choose to not follow God it brings more pain and despair, and eventually death. We don't get to see the great things that the Lord had planned for our lives because we thought our way would be better. I know I have had times of thinking that I have control over my life and that I will make it great. But then I get humbled by God and I ultimately realize and, have to keep reminding myself, that Gods ways are greater than my own, and to stop trying to take the reigns back into my own hands. When we make an actual choice to follow Gods will it brings a different perspectiv...

2 Corinthians 10:5 " We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ." What stands out to me is that we need to capture our thoughts and bring them to the Lord. When we do this it helps keep our focus on Him and eventually it changes how we think. When our thoughts aren't as filled with the world and more of what God wants it will be easier to be obedient.The more our thoughts are naturally tuned into what God has for us the more we will understand some of His reasoning as to why God is having us do something. Also we will gain the maturity in Him to understand that we wont always know the why but to just have faith and obey what He says anyway. This has been a thing that keeps getting put on my heart to do. I think to much at times and my thoughts can often get myself into trouble if I'm not careful. So I have been trying to give my thoughts to the Lord more and more. It has not be...

Hebrews 5:8 " Even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered." This is comforting because it showed that Jesus was just as human as us. Where He was tempted in the same things as us, the only difference was that we fell into the sin and Jesus didn't. Instead He learned obedience. If we would learn from how Jesus lived we would save ourselves so much trouble and grow in obedience much easier and faster. For me my actions weren't necessarily disobedient but my thoughts would not be honoring and I would take my own time on getting around to being obedient, which did not end well. Then while doing what I was told my attitude would not be the best, especially if it were my parents telling me what to do and if I was doing something wrong. If it were other people I would do what I needed to right away and with a good attitude. Before coming to Ignite God was showing me that my attitude towards my parents was not right, but I personal...

Psalm 17:15 " Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied." From reading this I see that God needs to be what satisfies us in the end, not people or things, but God. How often do we wake up in the morning and do our normal morning routine without even thinking of God until we grab our bibles for devotional time. When instead from the second we wake up we should be thanking the Lord for giving us another day to be a light for Him. And for Him giving us breath and letting us wake up. When we wake up it should make us excited because it means that Gods not done with us and still has a plan for whats to come. A plan that is greater than we could ever imagine, and one that we can be content about knowing that God will be our provider and will never leave us. When we wake up thanking the Lord it brings a new and better perspective to our day because then we will have already been focused on the Lord and not on our selves and it...

Philippians 4:11 " Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have." I have a problem of not being content with what I have, and like the verse says not that I was in need, but instead I think I was just always looking for the next thing and the next situation. Instead of being focused on what God had for me in that season of life. If I wasn't so focused on the future I wouldn't have missed what God had for me then. Like right now because we now know where our field locations our it is very easy to just want to skip to that next season, but instead I'm needing to focus on the now while preparing for the future at the same time because what I'm learning now will carry over to field time. God has always been providing for what ever I need, and He knew where I was going to be heading way before I knew, and has been preparing the way the whole time. I don't need to worry about the next thing or what I need because God is ...

Hebrews 13:5 "Don't love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, 'I will never fail you. I will never abandon you' " Money so easily becomes our god when we aren't careful. How often are we never satisfied and always consumed with materialism. When instead we should be looking to the Lord for what defines us. God is always around and like the verse says never leaves us where money you can use up or lose. Where you can never drain God of His worth and power, and the unique thing is that He wants you to turn towards Him instead of frivolous things that you will eventually need more of. Also the crazy thing is that God can't fail us, which is sometimes hard to comprehend because so many things have let us down in life and never measured up. God can't let us down and nothing is to much to put on His shoulders. The neat thing is that He wants our struggles and full attention to be on Him and for it not to be put onto other worries lik...

Luke 3:14 "What should we do?' asked some soldiers. John replied, 'Don't extort money or make false accusations. and be content with your pay." I know for myself I'm always looking for the next job that will pay me more then my current one. Which I don't see as bad, its more that if the money becomes a god to you and that is the only thing you are focused on, not whether if this is where God actually wants you for that time. When being focused on money turns to something holding you back from what God is truly wanting for you is when you need to take a step back and look at your true priority's. For me God has always provided the next job at the right time with the right pay. Even though I would stress about needing more money especially for coming to IGNITE, I knew God had a plan and would provide like He has in the past. Even if the job didn't pay as much as I would prefer I still had abundantly more then I could ask for and would have to learn ...

1 Timothy 6:6-8 " Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content." How hard is it for us to be content with what we have and where we are at? We are always looking for the next best thing, and it doesn't always have to be something new, sometimes its more just the next different thing that we want. When in reality we need to see that every thing we are given is from God and is a blessing whether its new clothes or a new situation, or the opposite of not getting anything new or having to stay where we are. Sometimes not having change can be harder than dealing with change. When we see that things in others lives are changing for the better and nothing different is happening in our own life, it makes it hard to stay content and not become jealous.When we really need to see that God...

Hebrews 6:12 " That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Reading this I'm definitely feeling convicted because I'm not really wanting to write this IBS even though I know I need to. There are other things that I would be lazy about and push off tell a later time when I should have done it right then. Procrastinating flowed over to obeying what God told me to do. Where I would end up not reading my bible because of it and then not hearing from God. So this is a good reminder to find those examples to imitate that are a good influence. Its hard to keep your faith up when you put things off and then when you need that faith its not there. God wants us to be faithful and patient not just one or the other.I'm not good at being patient so that is usually an area that I push to the side and plow on a head where instead this is saying I need to be more patient. This is just a good reminder to keep our eyes on...

Revelations 1:9 " I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God's Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus." I would like to say that I have the endurance and perseverance to be like John. What great faith does it take to trust that the Lords plan for you was to be imprisoned on an island? It wold be hard but obviously possible, I think it would have to start out being faith full in the little things unto God. Also what does it take to be imprisoned on an island, being that stead fast and focused on God to even have that be a possible consequence is beyond what most of us think possible for God to call us to. But it is a possibility that when we give God the control of our lives He could call us to something crazy but also there is a possibility of Him calling you to something that might seem more "mundane". When we giv...

Colossians 1:11 " We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy." (NLT) God wants to give us what we need, which is patience and the strength to keep going. Sometimes its hard to keep going on because it seems like everything is closing in and there is no light. But God is extending His hand to us and all we have to do is reach out to Him and let Him know that we need His help in all of this. It doesn't mean that everything is going to be all fixed but you now have a joy and a peace that the Lord of all is right there with you healing and comforting through this and bringing a light out of the dark. That is just a great encouragement to me to keep going because the Lord that was born into this world and never sinned wants to go through our struggles with us and take them away from us to relive our burden and bring a great joy. For me it is easy to diminish Gods ...

Luke 21:19 “By standing firm, you will win your souls.” (NLT) How does it look to stand firm, and stand firm in what? We should be standing firm in the Lord and deepen our roots in Him so that when a storm comes we are like a tree firm in our foundation. Now how do we stand firm, from what I’m learning to stand firm is letting go 100 percent of everything. Which can be hard at times and can be easy to just hold onto that little thing that the Lord is calling you to let go. And when you finally realize that it is exaughsting to hold onto that last part and finally give it to the Lord it is freeing and brings a great joy that can only come from the Lord. By doing that it is freeing up your soul for whatever the Lord is wanting you to do and where ever He may send you. The Lord has been working on me these past couple weeks of letting go and I feel like I truly let everything go and surrendered it all to the Lord. It helped me to do this by writing down my prayer and actually seeing it a...

Luke 8:11-15 “This is the meaning of the parable; The seed is God’s word. The seeds that fell on the foot path represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so the never grow into maturity. And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.” From this I see that it is very important to have solid roots in the Lord, because even a good moral person could be following God just fine but eventually be swallowed up by ...