Thursday, April 25, 2013

To Start The Day

“To Start The Day”
By Zach Wood
Psalm 63:1


There are four words that stand out to me from this passage more than the others.  They are “earnestly I seek You”.  First of all, when I think of these words, I strongly believe this is what God desires of my heart each day that I live.  Second, I strongly believe that this should be my prayer each day as I wake up and go into my day.

I really do like to start each day by having quiet time with God.  I just don’t like starting my day any other way.  It doesn’t seem to go well when I don’t.  However, I do find myself going through the motions many days just praying the same prayer and not really thinking about what I’m praying. 

If I am really serious and earnest about following God and doing what He says, I will strive to think about Him all through my day.  He is my God and I want to earnestly seek Him and follow Him.  In every single thing I do and say, I want God’s love to show through.  I want people to feel Him when they are around me and to know He is Lord and Savior of my life.  There are some days, though, when He does not show through me very well because I am so unfocused and not earnestly seeking Him because I’m distracted by so many other things.

I hope and pray that this passage will be a sincere prayer from your heart to God each day that you wake up and get going.  If you do not have a personal quiet time with God to start your day, I highly recommend it.  It seems like such a great way to start the day and getting focused on Him and asking Him to guide and direct the day.  This is just a very conscious way to start the day and it can really help us focus on Him throughout the day. 

I encourage all of us to start our day asking God to help us focus on Him and go through our day earnestly seeking Him.      

Friday, April 19, 2013

Be Bold & Confident

“Be Bold & Confident”
By: Zach Wood
Acts 7:54-56

Not only does God tell us not to worry, but He wants us to be bold and confident.  That is downright hard for many of us.  When we initially think of being bold and confident for God it can frighten us many times.  Depending on our personalities and where we are in our journey and faith in God, we react differently. 

In the book of Acts, we see a man named Stephen who was full of the Holy Spirit and filled with God’s power and stood before the Sanhedrin giving them a powerful speech.  At the end of that, not too many people were thrilled and they dragged him out of the city and stoned him. 

When I read this passage, I often wonder if I could be so bold?  What is sometimes keeping me from the willingness to do anything for God?  By sharing this passage, I’m not trying to say God is going to call you to lose your life for Him in this kind of situation, but if the situation presented itself, would you be bold and confident and proud to lose your life for Him? 

Often, when I get into situations where I am encountering people with questions, I fear and worry that I won’t know the answers to their questions.  I’m scared many times that I won’t know the right words to share.  Maybe some of you deal with the same problem. 

There are many times that sins we have in our life keep us from following God, but also times when it’s our lack of confidence and boldness.  We become afraid of the unknown and don’t want to step forward in complete faith. 

So I want to ask you these important questions.  What keeps you from following God?  What is holding you back?  What keeps you from being completely and totally devoted?

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

We Have Real Hope

"We Have Real Hope"
By Zach Wood
Romans 5:1-5

In life, we all have times when we feel hopeless. Maybe someone gave you the cold shoulder in a desperate time of need.Maybe you lost your job right in the middle of a serious financial crisis at home. Or perhaps everyone at work threw more responsibilities on you when it was the only week you had planned to focus on other tasks that needed to get done.

It’s so easy sometimes to lose hope.Satan is a master of finding ways to discourage us and take our feeling of hope away.Most of us have experienced this at one time or another.However, if you continue to fall into this rut and stay in it, then something needs to change.

For a Christian, there is no situation in which hope can’t be found.You may feel that way initially, but after you work more through the situation with God’s direction, you find there really is hope.Many times we tend to give up and not look for or believe in hope. Jesus Christ gives us every reason to have hope because of what He has done for us.He promises to be by our side when we hard times pull us down.

Many people have a hope, but it’s not based on anything real or spiritual.These people just hope something will turn out or they hope for the best.It’s not a hope found in Christ.Many people hope the stock market will hold up.Some hope in a salary that will take care of all their financial needs.Others hope for a nice job in which they’ll enjoy what they do.And still some hope to have a good family of their own one day.

It’s not wrong to hope for these things.However, if these things are all we ever hope for, then we’re not properly focused and we’re in for a major disappointment!

My prayer is that we will find joy and the attitude to rejoice in the hope of Jesus Christ even when we experience the trials of life. Our hope should be found solely in Jesus Christ and not in the things of this world.