“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.” - Hebrews 3:14

It’s a tough call that our conviction will remain the same even after suffering in the cruel world. A lot of times we were influenced by this world, but most of the time we succumb to all the ideologies of this world. Even if we already know the truth, we will act dumb and ignorant just to play nice or to play by the rules of this world. It was hard when we were unbelievers, but that life before Christ was easier compared to the life we have now in Christ. However, this is not a discouragement, but this is pointing out the truth. We will not have an easy life while we are in Christ. 

During the time of Jesus, He was rejected by everyone. He was despised, rejected, and ridiculed. So, why do we expect to receive roses while our Savior and our God received thorns? It is not because God wants us to suffer, but that’s just how the world is. The world hates Jesus and everyone who follows Him. So, we must expect that the world will also hate us if we are in Christ. That is why, we have to understand that we will have a hard life while we were in Christ, not as a discouragement but just for us to know the truth. It is easier to blend in with the world than to be against it. However, we have to understand that blending in the world will mean becoming the enemies of God. So, what will you choose? 

Now, our verse today is actually reminding us that if we have come to share in Christ the conviction we received from Him, then if we hold on to it firmly, we will share also His victory. We all know that we are saved by grace through faith, and God has fulfilled His promise to us that His Son will be our Savior. Thus, we also must know that to be in Christ, we must understand that we have to continually hold on to His promise as our old self died with Him on the cross, we will also then resurrect with Him if we will continue to hold on until He comes back. 

Therefore, we must understand that His grace is indeed sufficient. We must understand that as we live in this cruel world, we would just want to give in to its sinfulness, but we must be reminded that we should hold on to Christ. Let us focus on Christ as our center, and make Him the Lord of our lives. May we hold on to this conviction and let Christ have control of our lives. Let us reflect on His righteousness and fight the good fight of faith.

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“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12:21

As people living in this cruel world, we always try to be good to others, but if people are being cruel, then we tend to retaliate. We see things on an eye-to-eye basis. If someone was being cruel to us, then we will take revenge and treat them badly too. Even if we deny this or not, we know for sure that we are like this and we really retaliate and repay evil with evil. We repay cruelty with cruelty and we don’t even try to be gentle because we are people who will always try to compete even if it’s evil. 

However, our verse today reminds us that we must not overcome evil with evil. We should not be overcome by evil, but instead, we must overcome evil with good. Paul is actually always reminding us through his letters what it means to be a Christian, and being a Christian means not letting evil overcome us. Why did Paul assume that we can be overcome by evil in the first place? Well, it is because he knew that we are evil by nature. We have been evil by nature, so it will be so easy for us to be overcome by evil. 

The good news is that God has saved us from ourselves. He already saved us from the evil nature, we have and has put the righteousness of Christ in us. So, we will be able to overcome evil. We won’t be overcome by it anymore because God has enabled us to fight it and overcome it. That is why Paul is insisting or reminding us that we must not be overcome by evil, but we must overcome evil with good. We must make sure that evil has no foothold to us, and that we must not see things eye to eye or tooth for a tooth for we are better, and we can do better. 

Therefore, we must understand that we are always evil, but since Christ died for us and that He saved us from our evil nature. It is possible for us to not be overcome by evil, but instead, overcome it with good. We must remember to always be gentle and reflect Christ’s goodness in our lives. The most important part of being a Christian is continually living in Christ, so we must live in Christ and reflect His goodness in our lives. After all, He who has no sin has defeated death, so we must remember that we are not victorious over death and sin, so let us remain the path God has provided for us.

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“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” - 1 Peter 5:6

A lot of times, we think that we are above everybody. What this cruel world is teaching us is that we must always be above anyone and we must always win in life. Most of the time, we then try to step on other people just to get whatever we want. The bottom line is, we don’t know the value of humility. We just don’t care whatever happens, or we don’t like it when people are above us. As much as possible, we wanna be on top of others. So, whatever it takes, we will take the top place.

However, we have to understand that God is always encouraging us to humble ourselves. No matter what other people reach, and we cannot have it, we must not compete but be humble. We need to show humility because just as God said, “Whoever will be the last, will be put to first.” Although this shouldn’t be our encouragement to humble ourselves because we are expecting to be praised in the end, this should be enough inspiration for us to remember that even Christ, who is our God, humbled Himself for us. 

Now, the reason why God encourages us to humble ourselves is that God humbled Himself first. We as Christians need to reflect on the life of Christ. When we received Him as our Lord and Savior, we were given life through Him, and we will then receive Him not just as Savior but also as our Lord. So, if we receive Him as our Lord, we must also allow Him to have control of our lives. In doing so, we will then realize that as we reflect Christ, we must also reflect His humbleness. Now, part of this is the promise of our verse today that in due time, God will lift us up. Not because we are being humble in our own accord, but because we are reflecting Christ’s characteristics in our lives that we were able to humble ourselves. 

Therefore, we must understand that it is really very important for us to receive Christ as our Lord and Savior first. Everything will be in place if we open our hearts to Him and let Him be our center. If we continue to live our lives in Christ, we must always reflect on Him. We must reflect His love, His humbleness, and His righteousness. Thus, we must never forget that we are blessed and that we will be lifted in due time because of God’s mighty hand. We are in good hands and we will be humbling ourselves as we serve Christ.

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“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.” - James 3:9

In describing the uncontrolled, evil nature of our tongues—our words and how we use them—James now points to two contrary ways we use our tongues.

First, we can use our words to bless or praise our Lord and Father. After James’s description of evil, untamable, unstable tongues up to this point, it’s shocking to imagine such a person use their words to bless God. Perhaps we’ve been imagining that James has been describing non-religious people, or bad people. Or as we’d like to think, he’s describing “other” people—not us, and not Christians. But, no, James’s is describing the tongues of the human worshipers of the one true God. He is describing a weakness even in Christians. That makes his next example all the more convicting.

We also use our words to curse people. The word “curse” here is katarōmetha in the Greek, and this term is very specific. It does not refer to the use of coarse or “dirty” language, though that’s part of how we can misuse our tongues. In the classic sense, to “curse” another person is to condemn them. It is to wish them to be cut off from blessing. It can even mean a prayer to send them to hell. More generally, this type of “cursing” is a desire for evil to come into someone’s life. In the sense James means it here, we can curse someone with a variety of words, R-rated or not.

It is such a common human thing to “curse” another person that we tend to dismiss it as not that big of a deal. “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” is a common English proverb. And yet, James explains why abusive speech is such a big deal: We are cursing a being made in the image of God!

This is the second time in this chapter James has looked back to our creation by God, described in Genesis 1 (James 3:7). His arguments about how we use our words are rooted in the very foundations of creation itself. His main point is this: We use our words to bless our Creator and then to curse His creation. As he’ll explain in the next verses, that doesn’t make sense. It reveals the untamable, evil nature of our tongues.

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“Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’” - John 13:7

During the time of the twelve disciples, they see Jesus as their political Messiah. They thought that He will save them from the terror government they were under. That is why during their time, they got mad when Jesus did things that a king should never do, especially Peter. When Jesus washed their feet, Peter really disagreed with what He was doing because he thinks that a king should never do that. However, a lot of Jesus’ actions were all a mystery to the disciples. Not just when He washed their feet, but almost everything because they only see Christ as a political Messiah. 

So, when the time came, Jesus was really so eager to teach the disciples things that they don’t understand. Jesus wanted to teach them the importance of being humble and also to have faith in Him. Jesus then said that they may not realize what He was doing at that time, but when the time comes, they will. What Jesus was actually referring to is all about how He will save the whole world. He did not come to just defeat the current government at that time, but His mission in the world was greater. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to give us eternal life, and all He did was all for us. 

Now, our verse today can still be a reminder for us. Even if we are now at the present times, we can still be encouraged by this because right now, we are all full of what-ifs. We don’t know what’s wrong with life, and sometimes we ask ourselves if what’s our purpose in life. Yet, we can then be reminded of this verse and trust God. Right now, whatever we are going through, we may not understand it, one day we will. We should trust our lives, our unknown future to our omniscient God. We may be facing a lot of struggles that we are on the verge of giving up on, always remember our verse today and be encouraged that we may not know what’s happening, but our God knows. He is our everlasting God, our Savior, and our Father. 

Therefore, we must never doubt His perfect timing. One thing we should hold on to is His promise that all things work well for those who love Him. We are serving an almighty God, a miracle worker, a promise keeper, and an everlasting forgiving Father– we are in good hands. Thus, whatever we are facing right now, we should not give up, and instead, we should just lift it all to God because one day, we will then understand why we went through this. God is not unfair, He will remember everything we did for His kingdom, and He is also a loving God. He loves us, and He cares for us. So, there’s really no reason to doubt Him. Let’s not base our trust right now on our unknown future, but let us trust God with our unknown future.

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“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him” - Colossians 2:6

As we reflected on the verse yesterday, the only way for us to be saved is if we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. The only way for us to have eternal life is through believing in Christ and accepting Him so that the wrath of God will not be upon us. If we have Christ and believe in Him, God will not see us standing in front of Him, but it is already Christ and His righteousness has overflowed from us for He has already made us righteous. So, as Christians, we will not suffer eternal persecution and misery anymore because we are already saved by grace. 

Now, our verse today is also a reminder for us that since we have received Christ Jesus as Lord, we must continue to live our lives in Him. A true believer in having a life that manifests Christ and that a life of a true believer is a life that continues to stick in Christ. A lot of us have been doing this in a wrong way or we have misunderstood that accepting and believing Christ for one time is enough and that we can go back to our sinful lives. However, if we truly understand what it means when we accept Christ and we believe in Him, we will be continuing living a life in Christ because we are now changed. 

For how many times, we tried to consider and think about how we can just fool ourselves into accepting Christ one time and continue to live our lives sinful, but it won’t work. True salvation, and if the Gospel of Christ really worked for us, we will be all changed people and we will be able to obey Christ. We are now filled with Christ’s righteousness and God has already forgiven us and saved us from our sins through Christ. So, we must understand that true believers really have changed lives, and lives that are completely bound in Christ. 

Therefore, we must always remember to continue to live our lives in Christ. We must not let our old life overcome our new life. Let us understand that we must manifest Him and His love. After all, He is our Savior and our God. We must put Him in the center of our lives and let Him have control. He is our God and His salvation is because of His grace. We don’t deserve it, but God made us deserving. Thus, we must remember to continually live in Christ.

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“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” - John 3:36

This chapter is where the famous verse that almost all Christians should know because it summarizes the whole meaning of the Gospel. Our verse today also came from John  3, which established a deeper thought or study of what John 3:16 means. This Gospel is actually written using very easy words for us to actually get it instantly. If we read the verse today, we will instantly understand that whoever believes in Christ will have eternal life and whoever rejects Him will not have it and will have the wrath of God on them. There’s no middle part, there’s no other way, but only this. 

However, as humans, as we are, we believe that we are wise and that we are knowledgeable in almost everything that we think we found a way out of. Yet, it is not true, we are utterly unredeemable. We cannot do anything to help ourselves. There’s nothing in this world that can help us. We deserve the wrath of God, and we deserve to die. Whatever we discover that we think can redeem us is not true. No matter how much we give out to charity, or no matter how much we give up our riches, we can never do enough good things to save our wretched selves. 

So, we need Christ to save us. The most important of being a Christian is to realize that we need a Savior. We can never appreciate the Word or the salvation of Christ if we don’t think that we need a Savior. We have to accept that we need a Savior because we are beyond redeemable. Now, since we need a Savior, we will then understand our verse today that if we believe in Christ, then we will have eternal. Thus, Christ is our Savior and He is the only way, the truth, and the life. Our eternal life comes from Him, and there’s no other way. 

Therefore, we have to read our verse over and over again today. We have to remind ourselves that there is no other way. The wrath of God was upon us until Christ took it all and poured it on Him. Now, the only thing we are going to do is to believe that He indeed did all of those for us and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. However, if we reject Him, the wrath of God remains in us and we will have no eternal life. We will die, and we will suffer eternal persecution and misery. So, we must always remember that we must accept Christ, not because we are afraid to die and suffer, but because we recognize that we really need a Savior and there is no other name but Christ– our one and only Savior and Lord.

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“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 5:10

Jesus’ list of people who are “blessed,” which we know as the Beatitudes, continues to grow. The word used for “blessed” can sometimes mean “happy.” However, in this context, mere feeling is not the point. In fact, some people Jesus mentioned may feel deep unhappiness due to their circumstances (Matthew 5:1–9). Despite hard situations, however, they are blessed: they are doing what is right and will experience eternal good in the kingdom of heaven.

Now Jesus says those persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed, and part of the kingdom of heaven. His early preaching ministry has focused entirely on this kingdom. Both Christ and John the Baptist have called the Jewish people to repent of sin, to be ready for the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 3:1–2; 4:17). John made it clear that nobody would be able to enter it simply because they were Jewish. Bearing fruit, being used by God for good, being faithful to God in your choices: these have been described as the signs of those who would enter the kingdom Messiah would bring to earth.

The implication here is that those being persecuted have some choice in the matter. In other words, they did not choose to avoid doing what is right, in order to avoid being harassed or harmed. They made a conscious choice to honor God, and to be faithful to Him, despite persecution from those who are unrighteous.

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“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” - 1 Corinthians 15:58

A lot of hardships and challenges are being thrown at us the moment we become Christians. People thought that as Christians we are so blessed and that we don’t have to undergo bad situations. However, it is indeed true that we are blessed, but it is not true that we won’t undergo bad situations anymore. We will still suffer, and we will even suffer more because, now that we are in Christ, our enemy will try to sift us away from Him using our desires to sin. Indeed, we are saved and given a new heart, but our desire to sin is still there. So, our enemy will always try to use that so that we will fall under the cycle of sin and death again. 

Now, our verse today is a reminder for us to stand firm. Paul is reminding the people in Corinth and even us readers to not be moved. We should not let anything move us because we must stand firm in the Lord. We must always give ourselves fully to the Lord because we know that our labor is not in vain. Our verse today is another way to remind us that we belong to the Lord, and if we offered and gave our life to Christ, we have to stand firm and should not be moved. It is very hard for us to accept the fact that we are still suffering. However, we must understand that we are saved by grace, and it does not mean we will have no trouble, but it means we have Christ in us and He will never forsake us.

So, as people of Christ, no matter what life throws at us, we must stand firm. We must not let anything move us. May it be personal problems, may it physical problems, financial problems or etc. we are to trust God, and not be moved. We should let God handle our situation, and believe that He will always be there for us. After all, God has given us people to share our sorrows with, and our struggles so we are really not alone. We have our brothers and sisters in Christ that know what we’re going through. We are so blessed and indeed, we must remember to give our hearts and our ourselves fully to the work of the Lord because we know it is not vain and we are beyond blessed. 

Therefore, let us always remember to put these into our heads and start burying our feet on the ground so that we will not be swayed. Let us bury our whole lives in Christ and let Him handle us. We ought to not be moved, and hold firmly to Him so we must let Him have the control, and be our center. We should always remember that we are indeed saved by grace and through this, we will be able to stand firm if we are in Christ. Let us continue to be in Christ, and let Him be the center of our lives.

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“so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” - Titus 3:7

As this epistle to Titus is drawing to a close, Paul is reminding him of the way that Christians should live their lives when we are surrounded with people that are not believers in Christ. He reminded him to be submissive to rulers and authorities and to be ready and willing to be kind and helpful to all who cross his path. He warns Titus to avoid the worldly habits of unkindly actions and deceitful words – but encourages him to live a life that reflects the beauty of Christ’s gentleness and the glory of His grace and kindness.

Paul continues to remind Titus that they were both once equally foolish - enslaved by their own various passions and pleasures and engaging in all the detestable activities that are embroiled within the world system.

Then comes the crescendo to which Paul has been moving – for he reminds Titus that it was only by the grace and kindness and mercy of God that Christ was sent to save them – not because of their own good works or righteousness – which are considered by God to be filthy rags, but according to His mercy — through the washing of regeneration and being made new and clean and whole by the cleansing word of the Holy Spirit, which has been poured out, by God’s grace, to everyone that believes in Christ.

Finally, Paul reaches the climax of this encouraging epistle - so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Has this really sunk into our heads – it is because of God’s GRACE that He has declared us RIGHTEOUS and has given us absolute confidence that we will inherit ETERNAL LIFE. What Grace! Let us take time to simply reflect on what this means for you and what it means to me.

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“He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.’” - Luke 11:28

Obeying is something everyone can never achieve. Either obey the law or just simply obey what our parents are telling us not to do. It’s very hard, and everyone has a dilemma in making sure that this statement is fulfilled. Although not all are disobedient, there are still people who obey their parents and try their best to obey what our God has told us to do. However, everybody sins, which shows that we are really disobedient and we are really not capable of obeying on our own. 

However, what’s the purpose of our verse or all the verses that God is encouraging us to obey? What were all the reasons why He still encourages us to obey if God already knows that we are incapable of that? Well, God is omniscient, of course, He knows that we will have a hard time. That is why He said that the blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it. The people who hear the Word are blessed because once we hear the Word, it does not just make us understand, but it also changes our outlook and our lives. 

Now, we have to understand that obeying is not something we are capable of doing alone. That’s why God is there, that’s why the Word is there, who is Jesus Chris– the incarnate Word so that we will have the strength to obey. We can obey through Christ if we hear Him. If we listen to the Word and obey it, we are blessed. It is not just a promise, but also a step for us to follow. We are so blessed that even if we are incapable of obeying, God has allowed us to have the strength, and that opportunity is through hearing the Word who is Christ our Lord. So, we have to know that obeying must be difficult, but we are able through Christ. 

Therefore, let us never forget this truth and hold on to this truth as it is our way to be able to obey the Word of God. Obeying the Word of God means also listening to His Word. We can never obey without hearing the Word, and it is impossible for us not to obey once we hear the Word, because if we truly hear it, we will be changed. Our lifestyle will change– from being sinful to a life of trying to reflect Christ’s love and righteousness. Thus, we must understand that we are incapable, but made capable by Christ’s grace.

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“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” - Psalm 94:19

For some time, we have depended on ourselves alone. We depended on the comfort our house brings us, the comfort of our significant others brings us, and the comfort of knowing that we have a family. However, all of these are sometimes not enough. We will be swallowed with anxieties, depression, and sadness once we are alone. It is very hard to stop our own thoughts from flowing. We can never save ourselves from our own overwhelming thoughts, yet a lot of people surpassed these kinds of episodes. Now, the question is, how? How did they be able to overcome their own minds? 

Our verse today is the answer to our own questions. It is not new to us that there are a lot of people suffering from mental health problems. Some even died because of it. It is very easy to succumb to the darkness of our mind, that we can never find the light of it. However, we are not alone. Even our psalmist today showed us a hint of his own mental health problems. Well, mental health problems are not a contemporary problem, but it has been a problem since before. A lot of people, even the prophets of God underwent mental health problems. After all, our minds are an endless chasm that sometimes we can never fathom nor understand. 

However, our God is an amazing God that even our psalmist in this verse declared with great confidence that even during his anxieties, the consolation of God brought him joy. Even if his own mind was waging a battle that can only be fought by him, he knew that God will always be there and His consolation brought him joy, peace, and confidence that even his restless mind cannot overcome. The joy that only God can give will be enough to overcome our grief, our anxieties, and our depression. Indeed, we are the only ones who can fight this battle, but it will be so hard to fight it alone. That is why we need God, so that is why our verse today is the reminder that we must cling to the joy and peace that only God can give. We may be experiencing a great number of anxieties, but the joy of God and His peace is greater. 

Therefore, may we be like our psalmist today, even though he is inflicted with anxieties and sadness, he still finds the joy that only God can give greater than all of these. Let us also see that our God is greater than our battles and we may feel like we are fighting alone, but our God is with us. He will give us joy and peace that nothing can surpass. He will shield us, and protect us with His mighty wings. Let us depend on Him, and submit everything to Him.

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While mixing the colors for this piece, I came to realize that God will sometimes mix up colors in our life like suffering, struggling and pain to remind us to depend on Him. Us being the masterpiece should trust God, our artist, that He is in control and He knows exactly what He is doing. He knows which colors to blend to make everything in perfect harmony. All the dark colors will soon make sense as He used them to perfect us - the masterpiece He wanted us to become. We may not yet see it now but sooner everything will be beautiful in its proper time. What God has prepared for us is much artistic than we could ever imagine. Can’t you believe it? The designer of the universe, the creator of the earth, the architect of every living thing who detailed each hair, each eyes, each wings; the author of every story that first seemed impossible is now painting the masterpiece called “YOU.” So I dare you not to trust the paint, not the paintbrush, but the artist. Put your hopes in God. Trust the timing of the colors he is applying to your life. Trust His process. It is more than worth it!

-DaughteroftheHero 

walkthesame:

Jesus is Greatness (#wtsdevo Jesus)

It’s insane how you see so many people boast and flaunt about their greatness these days. It is mind blowing, (and getting old very fast). I am Australian, but I hear about the greatness of Donald Trump all the way across the world. Not because of anyone else, but just from him alone! Is this really greatness though? Well let’s find out, shall we?

Now forget Trump for just a bit (check out the telly if you want more of him) and let’s bring Jesus into the conversation here. We all know that God is beyond ourselves and anything we can imagine. He is greater and next to Him we are just tiny, tiny, tiny humans who are in constant need of Him everyday, just so we can live. The world was burning and just deteriorating in sin, and so God had a mission and that is to save the world. To lead this mission, God sent down His only Son - Jesus, to come down to us. To rescue us and to save us.

Jesus! This is not some guy a few blocks away from where you live. This isn’t some guy who happens to be my neighbor. This isn’t some great athlete in some world class football team. Jesus is no prince of Egypt or England, or a president in some powerful country. Jesus isn’t any of these. Jesus is God. He is all of us combined. He is all of the universe and beyond combined and His greatness and power can’t be measured or put into perspective. It’s madness to even try to measure or even quantify who Jesus is because He is Jesus. Jesus is God.

As John shares in the Bible, - “The Word became flesh…” and goes on to say that Jesus “… Made His dwelling among us.”  Some important words here if you caught on to this already. Jesus just didn’t stay or stick to one place. Not a throne. Not a place. Not a president’s office. Nope. He was so great, that it was among us that He chose to live. He didn’t stop there with defining what greatness was.

In the Bible, we meet the religious leaders and the pharisees who just about defined what greatness was to the people of the time. We have people no different from these even today. However Jesus turned heads around and left them spinning when He chose to demonstrate what greatness really was. It was all about reaching out to the helpless, healing the sick, comforting those who were in pain and even washing the feet of His own disciples. In other words - it was by serving others and in sacrifice that He demonstrated what true greatness was.

Ultimately what Christ shared with us was the fact that greatness does not come from boasting, flaunting, wealth or from literally anything earthly. Power and greatness comes from within. From Christ dwelling within us. Greatness comes from those moments when we choose sacrifice over ourselves. When we choose to serve than to be served. Greatness comes when we accept that we can’t do everything on our own but that we are in need of Jesus to take lead over our lives so that we can be more like Him. Great like Him.

I urge you today to not let anyone tell you and dictate your greatness. Your greatness does not come from the world or by any formula, quantity or ability. Your greatness comes from Jesus Himself because Jesus is greatness! You and I are great in Him.

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Devotional Series: Jesus (#wtsdevo Jesus)

By: Elle \Personal// Walk the Same// Color Movement

walkthesame:

He is a Pursuing God (#wtsdevo God)

A few days ago, I was talking to a girl who used to be in the business of prostitution. She told me something that was really touching. She mentioned how she constantly felt alone, used and helpless while being a prostitute, and how she felt loved in a surreal way when myself and some of our team of girls came across her and spoke to her, helping change her life for the better.

“I didn’t want to trust you guys because it felt too good to be true. But when I saw you and some of the other ladies come over and talk to me day after day, sharing all about Jesus and love with me I felt wanted and loved for the first time. It was the first time someone genuinely had pursued me.”

She is following her dream now - studying to be a chef and we constantly keep in touch.

When she told me this, it just reminded me so strongly that I wouldn’t be here helping others if God hadn’t pursued me first and continues to do so. There was a time in my life where I was just shattered and broken. I felt useless and nothingness constantly, and I felt like I had no place in society. When I was feeling the most down, God pursued me in ways I could never have imagined. In His pursuit of me, He captured my heart and I captured His and I fell madly in love. I finally woke up to the amazing purpose and plans that He had for, me and all I wanted to do was go after them and live it through.

His pursuit of me inspired me to stay in the Church and help others. This same pursuit just fuelled me and strengthened me to never give up no matter how hard it gets. His pursuit of me is passionate and true. This alone shapes me to be the Christian and follower of Christ I am today.

Christ pursues all of us, and it is the kind of love story that you truly want to find yourself in.

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Devotional Series: God (#wtsdevo God)

By: Elle \ Personal // Walk the Same // Color Movement

walkthesame:

A Shared Heartbeat (#wtsdevo love)

As a child, my grandmother used to always tell me that I needed to be very careful about everything that I embrace into my life, because it will likely shape me in the long run. Embrace the good, and we will see good results . Accept the bad and unhealthy, and what we end up with is hurt and pain down the road.

The same can be said when talking about our relationship with God. So many people say they love Jesus, and yet their lives do not reflect it. However when we do love Jesus with all our heart, mind, soul and body, that bond with our Father will shape us into individuals who reflect Him entirely. His life becomes ours, His love becomes ours, His mission becomes ours and His heartbeat becomes ours.

What a wonderful connection is that!

My prayer for all of us today is that our relationship with God holds true and faithful, that we may grow in Him and share a life together with Him making everything else including our fears and trouble trivial and irrelevant. His love will take over and everything else drowns in the weight of His love.

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Devotional Series: Love (#wtsdevo love)

By: Elle \ Personal // Walk the Same // Color Movement

walkthesame:

Because God IS Love (#wtsdevo love)

Life is so chaotic and tends to be a lot more disheartening these days that I find it super crucial to me to remind myself on a daily basis that God loves me. With life and things around us trying to constantly weigh us down, it easy for us to sometimes wonder where God is in the midst of all of this. The negative thoughts and feelings that the enemy tries to pin down on us usually tend to make us feel like God has abandoned us because we aren’t all that worthy enough for Him.

Just as God constantly reminds me how good and loving He is, I want to extend that reminder to you today and share the good news that God loves you. Yes! He does. You may have had your shortcomings, your downfalls. You may have flaws and you may feel insecure and more….. But God loves you.

You may ask why “Why does God love me?”…. Well He does because He is love Himself. It is who He is and love being part of His nature and being, it is impossible for Him to not love you. What this means for you and me is that His love is always here to stay because it is based purely on who He is and not what we do or who we are.

Remember that God’s word triumphs over the world and people around you any day. You are loved and that love will never end.

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Devotional Series: Love (#wtsdevo love)

By: Jude \ Personal//Walk the Same