Tag: gift of life

By Pastor Andrew Farland

Have you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever gone through something so difficult, and seemingly without end, that you just wanted to quit?

Maybe you’re experiencing it right now: issues with your boss, trouble in your marriage, a battle with depression, stress in your workplace or relationships. Whether you’ve been in one or you’re in the middle of one, we all will experience situations that make us think, “This will never get better!”

Let me encourage you today. In his prayer to God, the author of Psalm 142:3 writes, “When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way.” The Bible gives us this massive promise that when we are weak, God is strong. When it feels like nothing is going to get better, God assures us that He will turn what is messy into something beautiful.

Will He clean everything up overnight? Maybe not. But, you can trust that a breakthrough is coming. Help has received your coordinates and is on its way! So today, stay mindful of your Heavenly Father who promises to watch you over you every step of the way. Remind yourself of this promise from Jeremiah 29:11 throughout your day:

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.

By Pastor Andrew Farland

Since the moment you decided to follow Jesus, the Evil One has been trying to trip you up. He’s been moving chess pieces on the board of life hoping that you’d stumble. Sometimes he succeeds and other times you’re strong enough to fight him off. The truth is that one of the Devil’s most effective tools against us is our own guilt.

Maybe for you, you feel guilty for the words you said to a parent before they passed away. Or maybe you feel guilty for how you treated your spouse. Maybe you carry guilt for repeatedly sinning even though you try your hardest not to. If you walk around with this kind of guilt on your shoulders, it can eventually make you think less of yourself as a person and as a Christian.

Doctors tell us that guilt can even cause physical and emotional problems. Guilt is a powerful thing. And Satan knows it. He uses our own guilt to pull us away from God. So, how do we live guilt-free? How can we avoid giving the Evil One a foothold in our lives?

Accept
You can either accept God’s payment or you will pay. To live in the freedom that God wants you to experience, you have to believe that what Jesus did on the cross really did cover over every sin from the past and future. Psalm 103:12 says that “as far as the east is from the west, God has removed our transgressions from us.”

Confess
Whatever you are willing to confess, God is willing to forgive. 1 John 1:9 tells us that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.” After you have committed to living in the freedom that comes with fully believing in Jesus’ forgiveness, you should spend time confessing your sins to God. When you do, you’ll begin to shed the emotional, physical, and spiritual weight that you carry around each day.

Be encouraged that there is nothing God can’t handle. You are His child and He offers unconditional forgiveness to all of his sons and daughters.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.

By Pastor Andrew Farland

If left to my own devices, I can worry about almost anything. My family, my future, my health, a loved one’s health, debt, student loans. You name it and I promise I can get worried about it pretty quickly. Honestly, if I spend more than 30 minutes watching the news or reading the headlines from my favorite news site, my blood pressure spikes, and my heart races. “Armageddon is here!” I think to myself.

Can you relate? Is there anything going on in your life that causes you to worry?

Let’s be clear. Worry is not a sin. In 1 Peter 5:7, the author says to “cast all your anxiety on God because He cares for you.” God assumes we will all have worry. He knows we will all have anxiety. But, God wants us to live the best life possible. John 10:10 calls this a “fullness of life.”

How do we find this kind of life? How do we live free from enslavement to worry?

Let go of what you can’t control!

Allow that to sink into your spirit for a moment.

Think about it. We typically worry about things we have absolutely no control over. We can’t control the health of our family. We have no say in how people will treat us at work tomorrow. And we certainly can’t control what our world leaders will do this week to create anxiety in all of us. But, we can control how much we are willing to let go.

If we want to conquer worry, we should ask ourselves three questions. I call them the 3 R’s:

Reality – What are the chances that this will happen?
Responsibility – What can I do about it?
Release – What’s leftover that I can’t control?

Releasing to God what we can’t control is the most effective way to overcome the worry in our lives. So, what are you worried about? What is it that you can’t control? Offer it up to God today and begin to live in freedom.

Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.

By Pastor Andrew Farland

Imagine yourself walking outside on a quiet evening, staring occasionally up at the stars and listening to the birds chirp the sundown. There’s something peaceful and cathartic about alone time in God’s creation. There’s also something very thought-provoking about it. I had an encounter that I’ll never forget when I spent some intentional time in the woods with God.

For years, I wondered about my calling. I wondered about my purpose, why God had put me on earth, and how he wanted me to serve Him while I’m here. It was when I finally silenced my mouth, mind, and my phone, that God gave me clarity.

He made it apparent to me, on that day, that my calling was rooted in the way He wired me from the moment of conception. What I was created to do has never been outside of me in some sort of career shift or educational path. Instead, it has always been inside of me trying to make its way out!

What skills do you have?
What do you enjoy doing?
What makes you the most passionate?
What makes you the most compassionate?

God showed me that our answers to these questions are deeply connected to our calling. How awesome is that?!

If you’re anything like me, you might never have thought that your calling from God was to live out the very things you like to do and are good at doing. The truth is that what you were made to do is in your heart, put there by God. Now, don’t get me wrong, discovering your calling may take time in the same way that uncovering your gifts and passions took an entire lifetime. But, God promises to be with you every step of the way, never to “leave or forsake you.”

Go and find your calling. It’s already inside of you!

Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.