Where are your priorities?

“I will when I have time. “I do when I have time.”

We all have 24 hours - The same amount of time every day.

Having time is not the problem. Prioritizing our time is.

You want to improve your marriage?!    Come to Jesus.

You want healing?!  Come to Jesus.

Make time.

You cannot get what you want if you do not latch onto what you need. You by yourself cannot achieve completeness.

You think your marriage is just between each other?
Have you taken God out of the equation?
Have you forgotten He created you – both of you?
He founded marriage.

Answers to all of life are found in The Bible,  not in your personal thinking. If you do not know what God says, how can you possibly know  what is the best way to handle any and all you go through?
If you’re not in His word daily, if you’re not reading and listening and meditating on Him, you are missing the mark.

Do not be a Christian in name only.

Pray.
Make time for Jesus.
He is here for you.

How  can you bring another to Christ if they do not see Jesus in you? How will they know, really know what they are missing?

Don’t just know God – but experience Him. Have a relationship with Him.

Where is your faith? Where is your trust?

Don’t stand at the back of the line and wonder if you should move to the front or stay where you are because it requires less work.

You have a devotional?! Read it! Daily. Meditate on it. Read the Scripture references. Make time. A regular set  time when you commune with God. Maybe it’s only 5 or 10 minutes, but do it!

Where do your priorities lie?

__relationship with spouse

__sleep

__job

__family time

__children

__personal time

__God

Where does God rank? Is He at the bottom?

You will fail without Him at the top of your life.

 God wants what is best for you. Won’t you get on the same page?

Come to Jesus.

Last place is not for Him. Without Him you achieve nothing worthwhile.

Make Him No. 1.

(c) July 23, 2014

We must own up to the consequences of our choices

The choices we make we are each, individually, responsible for. We cannot lay blame on another. So many of us say, “It’s not all my fault.” That may be true to an extent.  An argument starts …  both of you can be at fault as it develops and continues, but there are always choices. Choices to stop… to change direction… to become more irritated… to not listen… to walk out the door. It is your choice to consider and decide what action you will or will not do. It is your choice to proceed wisely or foolishly. The consequences of your actions become your responsibility, you must own up to them; the  blame does not belong anywhere but squarely on you. The longer we dwell on the irritation, think about how it makes us feel, the emotions churning, the more likely we are to make foolish choices. 

We can either continue down the path of refusing to take responsibility for our actions and moving ourselves further and further away from the perceived problem  by running from it or we can own up to our mistakes, resolve the issues that hurt us, and move forward.

To move forward, we have to let go of the past. You have to forgive … forgive yourself, forgive each other, and most of all, seek forgiveness from God. 

When we continue to replay every episode of what was or is wrong to ourselves or to another, the chance to start afresh becomes more distant. Yes, the past is present and sometimes you will think of the past, but to dwell on it will only you bring you back where you are now … tired, drained, fearful, tense, … no where safe, secure or peaceful  and going no where. A very sad place to be. 

Do you really desire to make things right?

Do you really desire a future with your spouse?

Do you really desire a growing relationship or do you prefer one that is stagnant?

Turn back. The direction you are going is wrong. Christian or unbeliever – both are susceptible to sin.

                  
It is easy to give in to anger.


It is easy to say, “Fine, sorry I bothered.”

It is easy to strike back and make a situation worse than it needs to be.

It is easy to give in to feelings of irritation and lashing out and sulking in a corner like a 2-year-old.

What is hard is apologizing to God … acknowledging our sins before God … agreeing with Him we have done wrong … crying out for His mercy … asking Him to forgive us, to help us, to save us.  

What is hard is turning away from selfishness and realizing how sorrowful we have made our Father in Heaven, how disappointed He is in us.

For us who are Christians, do we really desire to make amends with our Lord and Savior, to be on right footing with Him?

All of us need an attitude adjustment.

 All of us should turn from sin. We should all see a need to do so. What has sin done for you? Sin doesn't bring you happiness or joy or peace or kindness or thankfulness or love. Sin is ugly and dirty and dark.  

Turn away from what is evil;  turn to God and build a new life on Him. 

(c) Cathy Orrick Luders

Happiness is ...

When I was in college I took a class in typography and for my project I put together a booklet using hot metal type. The topic of my booklet was “Happiness is …”

I asked friends and others too  what happiness was to them and the answers were quite varied. I still have the booklet, but where is questionable. So, therefore, I only remember some of the answers. … like Happiness is eating a dilly bar … Happiness is playing in the mud …  Happiness is being with the one you love … making love … being married … finding God.

My mother, I remember,  said, “Happiness is a state of mind.” I thought at the time that seemed like such a cop out. I was in my early 20s. It seemed happiness should be something you do or that just was. Now, 40 years later, I remember her comment and think, wow, she’s right. Happiness is a state of mind.

Happiness is dependent upon your focus. If your focus is on self things, then it’s all about you and what makes you feel good.  But when your focus is on God, your aim is to live in ways that are pleasing to Him.

Since becoming a Christian – a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, I have worked to keep my focus off me. I’ll be working on that until the day God calls me home. It is a lifelong struggle, but the benefits of keeping our focus on God far outweigh the intense feelings Satan works diligently to get us to listen to, believe and then act on about ourselves and about others.

 Satan’s whole goal is to deceive, to distract, to distort.  God is always honest, always truthful, always loving.

The choices we make are our own responsibility. Not everything we do is always because of just us.  There is often another party. But each one of us individually has a choice to make … 

Will you turn away from what is bad and evil and turn to God?

The Light of Jesus

"To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace." ~ Luke 1:79

We are all called to be the Light of Jesus and show that light to all who sit in the darkness - unbelievers throughout the world.

We are to travel the way of peace but be forthright as well, not give in to those who do not know the way.

Jesus is The Way -- The Only Way.

In Him we have Truth.

Through Him we have Life.