Author: mary

Psalms 23 tells us that surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. Goodness and mercy go together. If you’re someone who gives mercy, then you are also giving out of the goodness of your heart. A lack of mercy for others also shows a lack of goodness in someone’s heart. Goodness is the evidence of a changed life.

Sometimes it can be hard to see the good in the world, but God is good which means there is still good in the world. There are still people who choose good over evil and right or wrong. There are people who are living their lives according to the Word of God. They have hidden his Word in their hearts. Are you one of those people? If you are, then goodness should be flowing from you. We live in a fallen world, so it can sometimes feel impossible to always choose good. The enemy makes the choice complicated, and his desire is to lead you away from what is good. Philippians 4:8 tells us to think about what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. It also says to think about things that are excellent or good and worthy of praise. It begins in the mind. When you think about the good things of God, those things will shine through you. God wants us to think about things that are good, but the enemy wants to pollute our brains so we only focus on the bad, the difficult, and the perverse.

God has given you, Christian, the ability to think about the good, to talk about the good, and to do good. He is giving you the ability to offer mercy to those who need mercy out of the goodness of your heart. Pray and ask Him today to be everything you need so that you can show the world the good He has done in your life.

Have you ever been grieved over a decision you made and the outcome? Or maybe you were grieved over your sin and the damage it did in your life. Sin always leads us away from God and the abundant life He has for us. John 10:10 states that the thief’s purpose is to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus came to give us a rich and satisfying life. Yet, since we have a human nature, we sometimes choose our flesh over our spiritual life. We say no to the spirit and yes to ourselves. Before we know it, we spiral out of control and are in the midst of a sinful lifestyle. This should shake us to the core and grieve our hearts.

Godly grief always leads us back to repentance as 2 Corinthians 7:10 says (For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.). This is the type of sorrow He wants us to have- a sorrow that leads us away from the enemy and back toward Him. A godly grief for our rebellious nature will always lead us to repentance. We can only serve Him and bring Him glory if we let repentance have its way in our lives.

God will always forgive us and take us back after we’ve sinned if we have a broken heart over what we’ve done. A child never truly learns until they understand the gravity of their mistakes. We will never truly learn until we fall down on our knees in grief.

People want to have others in their lives who they can trust and count on. It is disappointing when someone says they will do something and then they fail to do it. Or when they act one way at church on Sunday, but the rest of their days don’t match their Sunday life. Even the lost world can see right through a believer who is not trustworthy. So how can you live your life in such a way that makes others trust you?

First, place your trust in God as your source. Isaiah 26: 3-4 says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.” We will be a trustworthy person when our lives and our eyes are fixed on the Lord. He will keep us in perfect peace. He will be our trust! He will teach us how to trust others and He will teach us how to be true to our words. This is the way Jesus lived. He was always faithful and kept His promises. Next, live in such a way that gives others reasons to trust you. Follow Jesus and His examples He set. When you do, you won’t give those around you reasons to question you as a trustworthy person.

Be the person others can count on. Be the person who points others to Jesus. Make Him look good! Make others want to know Him and trust Him more. Your witness will either lead people to the Lord or will lead them away from Him, so make sure you are living a trustworthy life!

Trusting the people God puts in our lives can be a difficult task. Even Christians wrong us and don’t always treat us right. The world does not trust others, so it is hard to place our trust in others when the world puts the message out there that we need to “keep our friends close and our enemies closer.” While it is okay to be guarded, the walls we put up should never close others off. We need people in our lives to encourage us and spur us on. We need the fellowship of other believers so we can praise God together. Matthew 18:20 tells us that where two or more are gathered, there He is also. When we gather together, He is in our midst! So we must not stop meeting together.

People are going to fail you. We see that throughout the Bible. Jacob loved his brother Esau, but he knew that Esau was a godless person and would deceive him if he had the chance. Jacob had deceived him a few times, so they were both guarded with each other but loved each other. People will fail, but we can continue to love them and care about them. The closest people in our lives should be the ones who better our relationships with God. These people help keep us accountable and love us even when we fail. We should always have relationships with the lost, but our closest people should lift us up and not tear us down or influence us negatively.

Pray and ask God to put people in your life you can trust and who will build up your relationship with them, people who are pursuing the Lord and His Word. The world needs Jesus, and we can only witness when we stand together.

Before we can ever move forward in our relationship with the people in our lives and in our relationship with the Lord, we must learn to trust in Him first. The word trust has several definitions on Dictionary.com. The first definition says “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc. of a person or thing: confidence.” The second definition says “confident expectation of something: hope.” Now think of that in terms of the Lord. Do you trust in His confidence: His integrity, His strength, His ability, and surety? What an amazing thought. God has confidence; He is so sure that He is able to care for you, love you, and protect you.

God is trustworthy because He is the God of the Universe and He created everything. He knows every planet, every person, every hair on your head. He is trustworthy because He was here in the beginning, He knows what will happen tomorrow, and He holds the future. We have a hard time trusting in Him because we want to do it on our own. We think we know better, but we have no understanding of the way the world works. As 1 Corinthians 3:19 states, “The wisdom of man is but foolishness to God.” The wisest man still doesn’t understand the ways of God. So He is trustworthy!

Proverbs 3 says that we should trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our understanding. God knows better than we do just as a parent knows better than a child. When they tell the child not to touch the hot stove, it is because they know and understand what will happen when they do touch it! When God answers our prayers with a “no” or “wait” that is because He knows better and understands the outcomes. He is trustworthy with our lives.