Which Man (or Woman) do you want to be?

Do you want to be this person?

Jeremiah 17 vs 5 -6 :
(5) Thus says the Lord:  “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  (6) He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

Or do you want to be this person:

Jeremiah 17 vs 7 - 8:

(7) whose trust is the Lord.  (8) He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Just remember the following:

Jeremiah 17 vs 9 - 10:

(9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;  who can understand it?  (10) “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Be encouraged today, God is the God who loves you with an everlasting love.  Turn to Him, and let Him be your strength today.  We all know, at the end of the day, our flesh is weak, and we are strong only in His Spirit.  Jesus alone is our strength.  Lean on Him....

God bless

Tracy

Love - God's Way!

I find myself to be very unloving in moments.  Sometimes in my actions, sometimes in my lack of actions, and sometimes, just in my head!  And I feel convicted to dig deeper and focus on how God would want me to behave in love.  I also believe that we are capable of love even when we desperately are in need of it ourselves.  This is when we need to remember, no matter how we "feel" God loves us with an everlasting love, always.

1 Corinthians 13 vs 4 - 8 is not only all-encompassing in what love is, but also in what it is not, and how to behave in love towards all, God's way. 

I think the verses before vs 4 are also very important and profound, in that they tell us what is MOST important in our Christian walk:

1 Corinth 13 vs 1 - 3:  

The Way of Love

(1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 

(2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

(3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If you do not have love, your speaking in tongues, or prophetic prowess, knowledge and faith, and generosity, are all worthless in the eyes of God.

So, what then can you determine from these verses?  Love, love, love!  Love is what the Lord is after!

And what is this love that the Lord expects of us?

1 Corinth 13 vs 4 - 8(a):

• (4) Love is patient and kind; 
• love does not envy or boast; 
• it is not arrogant 
• (5) or rude. 
• It does not insist on its own way; 
• it is not irritable or resentful;
• (6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, 
• but rejoices with the truth. 
• (7) Love bears all things, 
• believes all things, 
• hopes all things, 
• endures all things.
• (8) Love never ends....

This is what love is.  Such a practical and direct definition and call to love, God's way.  Chapter 13 vs 8(b) - 12 goes on to say that all the other gifts and abilities will pass away, but love never will.  

And, the chapter ends on an awesome statement: 

1 Corinth 13 vs 13:  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Let 2020 be a year when rediscover how to love others, not with the desire to have that love returned, but purely because Jesus requires it of us.

God bless

Tracy