Joy, Faith, & Belief

So last week these words of joy, faith and believing kept showing up everywhere. I kept thinking and wondering, “Why do I keep seeing things about joy, faith, and belief on facebook, or just automatically flipping my Bible open and verses on these topics show up?” Also, last night as I sat drafting this post I saw on my facebook newsfeeds that one of my friends had just posted a long thing about believing that your prayers will be answered. I realize that God has been really trying to speak to me but last week I did not know what it was all for and about.

I decided to pray about all these signs being shown to me. I kept thinking, “Okay God, I am joyous right now, I already believe in Jesus, and have a good faith in you so what are you telling me?” Well, towards the end of the week I started realizing what the Lord was trying to tell me. I started realizing that these next two weeks are going to be really rough and hard on me to get through. God was saying even in hard times rejoice in Him, have JOY. I always remember the song “The joy of the Lord is my strength”. Also, I finally figured out that the faith and believing stuff did not have anything to do with my believing that the Lord was real, but with trusting that God would work all these life challenges I will be facing out for my good like Romans 8:28 conveys. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Also, in life we sometimes feel that things are just too hard for us, but there is nothing that is too hard for God to do just like Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

Honestly, I worry and cry about silly little things in life because I strive for perfection. I used to tell my mom all the time when I was younger that she should not worry. Now here I am doing the same thing. I know that the Lord will help get me through all this homework, 5 tests, 3 quizzes, work, and other things going on however, I just need to TRUST Him. I need to replace worry with JOY and BELIEVE that He will answer my prayers if I have FAITH.

The Gift of Time

When I was in high school my sister and I did a home school DVD program through Pensacola Christian Academy. One of our teachers, Mr. McBride taught us Life Management Under God along with History. During our Life Management class he was talking to us about having good time management for efficient living. It was very interesting that I thought I would share it with all of you.

He said, “Suppose someone put $86,000 in your bank account every morning for you to use that day with the stipulation that by night fall any unused portion would be lost to you. What would you do? Of course, you would draw out every bit of it that day and use it.” He compared the money to time. We have 86,400 seconds of precious time in one day. If we don’t use our time wisely it is lost forever.
This is a very good poem that was in our text book.
I have only just a minute
Just sixty seconds in it;
Forced upon me—can’t refuse it
Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it
I must suffer I lose it,
Give account if I abuse it
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it!
~Author Unknown

We have three different aspects of time. We have the past, present, and future. There are two concepts of the word future. We have our future ahead of us, on this earth, and our future beyond this life, which is our eternal future.

To be ready for our eternal future we need to take time for God. Whether it be praying, reading the Bible, memorizing scripture, etc. One of the statistics that was in our school book said:
12% Of Christians read the Bible daily
24% Read the Bible once a week
42% Read the Bible once in a while
12% Never read the Bible!
That is very sad.

We must use our days that the Lord has given us. Psalm 90:12 says, "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." We are not promised tomorrow so we must do our best to love, serve and spread the gospel to others every day. What will you do with the time God has given you?