Author: mary

A gentle word or action can completely alter someone’s day. After a long day, it can be difficult to show someone gentleness, especially family members. Many times we lash out at each other when we’ve had a hard day or when we’ve dealt with people all day long at work. Sometimes it is difficult to show gentleness with those we live with and work with as well. Gentleness is a fruit of the spirit for a reason. Christ showed His gentleness time and time again when dealing with sinners, the brokenhearted, and even His disciples. When people make the same mistake again and again, Christ continues to be gentle. It is part of His character.

Christ was gentle with the little children when they came to Him, placing them on His lap and teaching them. He was gentle with Zacchaeus, coaxing Him to come down out of the tree so He could fellowship with him at his house. Jesus was gentle with his friends Mary and Martha when visiting them at their house after Lazarus died. They didn’t understand why Jesus would let him die, yet Jesus was gentle with them wanting them to believe in Him and trust that He knew what He was doing. He was gentle with His disciples, loving them, teaching them, and showing them patience when they didn’t understand. God’s desire is for us to show gentleness to those we love, the unsaved, and even the people who we get impatient with.

How can you show gentleness with others today? Who do you need to show gentleness to? Think about the people who are in your life: family members, church members, coworkers, friends, and do a little evaluation of who you could show more gentleness to. Make a decision today of how and when you are going to be gentle with that person and commit to changing in your life.

Who do you attribute your journey towards salvation? For some, it was a Sunday school teacher who invested in children’s spiritual lives Sunday after Sunday. For others, it was a family member, maybe a parent or grandparent who took them to church every week. Discipleship is a very important part of the Christian faith. God wants us to invest in others so they will grow in their walk with Him. We need to find others we can grow with as well as invest in others. How can you make discipleship or mentoring a part of your Christian walk?

First, find a church that is growing disciples. Churches that are growing disciples will have Bible studies and other activities that focus on growing in the Lord together. While fellowship is important, that cannot be the only focus in a church. Next, if you don’t have a mentor or someone who can keep you accountable, spend some time in prayer asking God to provide an opportunity for you to be mentored. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new Christian or have known the Lord for years, we could all use someone to help us keep growing and keep us accountable so we stay on the right track. Last, look for someone you can pour into. Find a new believer or someone who needs to be discipled. A tree cannot grow if it is not watered, and God uses His believers to help grow other believers!

You will find that when you make discipleship an active part of your Christian walk, you will grow in the Lord. Studying the Word with other believers and helping someone grow will be so rewarding. It will be impossible to stay where you are!

God never promised us that we would go throughout our Christian lives without heartache and grief. In fact, it is just the opposite; because we live in a fallen world, we will definitely experience sorrow and tragedies. It is what we do with those moments that defines who we are and who God is to us. If we allow the tragedies in our lives to overtake us, then we will never move forward and open ourselves up to what God is doing in our lives. We must take our sorrow and grief and give it to Him so He will make something beautiful of it.

We all have moments of grief and sadness. Even Jesus grieved over His dear friend Lazarus and his death. John 11:35 says that Jesus wept. We can allow Jesus to comfort us because He understands the emotions that we are going through. It is okay to grieve for a while. You don’t have to immediately move on. People leave impressions on our lives and in our hearts, and their memories live on in us forever. We can allow those memories to comfort us; that is why God gave us a mind that remembers! He wanted us to remember our loved ones and the impact they made on this world. God will eventually turn our mourning into dancing. That doesn’t mean that we will forget and move on, but that we will celebrate who they were and carry them with us throughout the rest of this life.

God mourns with you. He is grieved when He sees His children grieved. Give in to the emotions He’s given you and allow Him to wrap you up in His arms. He will be your peace and comfort!

We were placed on this earth to worship and serve the Lord. While God could have made the rocks cry out in praise to Him, He wanted to create man instead to worship Him. He gave man a mind to think about the things of God, hands to lift up in worship to Him, a voice to sing praises to His name, and a heart to live a life of worship as Romans 12:2 tells us. He wants us to bring glory to His name in everything we do. When we go to work, we should praise Him. When we are loving our spouses and children, we should praise Him. When we meet people, we should praise Him. When we go out into the community, we should praise Him.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31-32 Paul says, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.” Paul lived a life worthy of God’s praise. He tried to be all things to all people because he cared about their salvation. So in everything he did, he thought about the lives of others.

Whatever you do, think about the lives of the people around you: your coworkers, your friends, your family, the lost community, anyone you come in contact with. How can you live your life in such a way that brings them to know the Lord?

Have you ever wanted to start over? Wipe the slate clean? Start fresh? That is exactly what Christianity offers, a chance to start over. The salvation that God gives through Jesus Christ allows us to have a new life. The Bible calls it a new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Many religions are about what you can do to earn your reward, but Christianity is about what God does inside of us. He is the one who gives new life; it is nothing that we can do.

Think about the dirtiest clothes you have ever seen. What happened when you put it in the wash? Maybe you added special detergent to take out the difficult stains. It more than likely came out pretty clean, but not like new. Washing it and removing the stains is the closest you can come to making a shirt brand new again. God not only cleans us, removes all of the dirty stains, but He makes us brand new! He makes us a new creation! This verse says that the old is gone! It is no longer there! We can trust that if we submit to the Lord and allow Him to clean us, He will make us brand new! He is the only one who can do this miraculous thing. That is what sanctification is. It is the process of making holy.

If you have never given your heart to the Lord, pray and ask Him to make you a new creation and take away the old life. Be careful because the enemy will try to make you focus on your old life and whether or not you deserve this salvation, but focus on God instead and how He cleans you and makes you new!