Please Him, Not People

“Please Him, Not People”

By Zach Wood

Colossians 3:23-24

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Every time I read this passage, I am reminded that I need to live my life in service to please God and be faithful to Him.  I am not called to impress others.  If I live my life trying to please other people instead of pleasing God, then I am failing.  I need to do my best in everything I do, no matter what it is I may be doing.  I need to show commitment, determination, and positive attitude in everything I do. 

No matter what we are called to do throughout our days, we need to give our absolute best so that others see a servant attitude in us.  No matter what obstacles we face or people that aggravate us, we are still called to be the best and do the best we can for God.  If we keep our minds on serving Christ, we will be successful because we are being faithful to Him. 

It’s quite easy for us to want to impress those we work with.  It’s easy for us to desire to impress our bosses so they will think great things about our work ethic and that we are determined to do the best we can for the company.  While there is nothing wrong with showing a great work ethic, we should be focused on doing our best and letting that be the impression we give our employers instead of just trying to impress them.  In everything we do, we are called to give our best as we seek to serve God. 

No matter where you, whatever you are doing, and whoever you are with, make sure that all things are done to glorify Him.  It’s what we are called to do.  By serving others in Jesus’ name, we are furthering the Kingdom.

Attitude Control

“Attitude Control”

By Zach Wood

Romans 12:2

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

This passage came up today on the Bible app on my phone as the passage for the day.  It reminded me of the sermon on Sunday as we looked at how our attitudes can determine the day we have.  I find it easy sometimes to let my attitude become worldly and focus on things that are not pleasing to God.  It’s not my intention at all to be this way, but with the craziness of life and how Satan likes to get his foot “in the door”, it becomes easy to be negative. 

It’s often easy for us to become like the world and how the world thinks.  The Apostle Paul gives us a very important reminder that our attitudes and mind cannot follow the pattern of this world.  If we are to be a witness to people around us and be encouraging, we must go against the flow and be different.  It’s hard to do that, but exactly what Christ calls us to do. 

It’s important for us to be very intentional every single day to start with a Christ-like attitude and continue that through the day.  It’s challenging and often difficult, but Christ gives us the strength to carry through.  Before our attitudes can change, we must let God transform us.  Our minds and hearts need to be transformed before our attitude changes. 

It is my prayer that we all desire for a renewal of our minds to the likeness of Christ and not of this world.  It’s a daily renewal process for us to experience.  We absolutely must be intentional every day to live our lives for Christ.  If we are not intentional about it, the enemy will try to take over. 

Let us not conform to this world, but be transformed by God. 

His Continued Faithfulness

“His Continued Faithfulness”

By Zach Wood

Deuteronomy 7:9, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.”

My favorite word from that passage is “faithful”.  When I think of God and His faithfulness in my life, it makes me smile.  I am honestly sad when I think of all the times in my life when I’ve been unfaithful to Him in my relationship to Him.  No matter how many times I’ve gone my own way and done my own thing, He continues to be faithful and forgive me when I repent of my sins. 

I’m also thankful that God is so faithful when other people and things let me down.  So many of us put our trust in the things of this world to please and satisfy, but we end up getting left dry and searching for more fulfillment.  God alone fills that void and He is so faithful to us, even when we mess things up and go our own ways.  He forgives if we will just confess to Him and ask for that forgiveness.  He will pick us up and carry us on.  I love that about our Awesome God! 

I encourage you all to think each day about how God has been so faithful in your life and in His provisions to you and your family.  He is so faithful to us and we need to be faithful as we show Him our love through obeying His commands. 

Let us be reminded daily of His continued faithfulness and continue in our faithfulness to live for Him.

Love Through Discipline

“Love Through Discipline”

By Zach Wood

Hebrews 12:11, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

We all know that discipline makes us stronger and teaches us to learn to do what is right.  However, none of us enjoys going through discipline.  Every one of us has had different experiences in our childhood and adolescent years with discipline.  We have all been raised in different ways and have had various experiences with this.  When we become parents, we often find it hard to deal with discipline and exactly what we should do in certain situations.  We are constantly learning as parents.

God needs to discipline us just as we discipline our children.  He loves us and knows exactly what we need to grow and become stronger as His children.  As parents, we don’t enjoy giving discipline, especially when we get angry with them.  Every parent I know has had terrible moments when they “blow up” at their children.  None of us are perfect at parenting, but we learn and we grow.  We continue to try to discipline the best we can and show our kids we love them no matter what. 

I am always amazed, no matter how many times I mess up getting frustrated with my girls, that they keep coming to tell me how much they want to be with me and how they love me.  Man, talk about melting daddy’s heart!  They do come to understand that they need to learn and re-learn.  For us as well, with God’s discipline, we have to learn and re-learn, just as our kids do. God loves us and wants the best for us, and so He has to discipline us.  He does this because He loves us and knows it will make us stronger.

The pain from discipline will make us stronger as we continue to live our lives for Him.  

Give Him Praise

“Give Him Praise”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 100- “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

If you take time to read through some of the Psalms, you will quickly see praises being lifted up to our Almighty God. The Psalms are full of these passages and they are very uplifting.  Sometimes, we just need to read these passages and be reminded of how great and awesome God really is and His mighty power. 

Whether we are having a good day or a bad day, it is good for us to bring praise to Him whatever the circumstances.  It’s easier when we are having good days and harder when the bad days come.  We tend to focus on the negative and our frustration often times.  But if we remain strong in the Lord and look past those things to His power and comfort, we can still come before Him with praise and grow through our hard times. 

My favorite part of this passage is the last verse where we see that God’s love endures forever and that His faithfulness is never-ending.  That is comfort and an amazing feeling.  It’s so inspirational, even in the midst of trying times, when I can just be by myself and lift up praises to Him and focus on Him.  I want to always be mindful of how awesome He is and all that He has done and continues to do for me.

Have you come before Him with joyful songs in your heart and in complete praise?  He truly deserves our adoration and praise. 

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever!  

The Power Of His Great Love

“The Power Of His Great Love”

By Zach Wood

Romans 8:38-39

There’s something powerful about this passage every time I read it and share it with others.  I am always reminded that, no matter what happens in my life and what hard times I go through, God’s love will always be strong to protect and comfort me.  Jesus Christ went to the grave, but He rose and conquered sin and death!  There is nothing greater than the love that comes from God.  I am held by that love and promised that love will never go away.

For most of us, we are fully aware that God’s love will never end.  However, we know people who are hurting and struggling and they need to be reassured of God’s love and how deep it truly reaches and the pain that can be comforted by His love.  His love is greater and deeper than any ocean.  I am reminded of the song “Your Everlasting Love”.  His love is higher than the sky, deeper than the sea and it reaches out to the deepest hurt we could have.

I hope you are thankful that our Father is so strong that His love brings comfort that the world cannot give to us.  There is absolutely nothing that will take God’s love away from us.  His love is beyond our comprehension and is so strong that we’ll never realize exactly how much He truly loves us.  That, to me, is a fantastic feeling and I hope you feel that as well! 

The power of His true love is the most amazing love we could ever know.  The power of that great love of God is an encouragement to those that hurt so much today from the pressures of the world and its lies.  People hurt so much from others and the lies they have been told, but God promises a love that is greater than anything we could ever hope for or imagine.  A love that transcends anything we have ever known. 

I am so thankful for a love that powerful and beyond my comprehension.  That is a love unlike any other.  Do you believe in the power of His great love?

Breathtaking Beauty

“Breathtaking Beauty”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 19:1

Out of all the wonderful things I’ve seen through my years of life, nothing takes my breath away like when I see a beautiful sunrise or a sunset.  I could be just taking a walk by myself, with my family or be in the car going somewhere.  No matter when I see a beautiful view like that, I want to stop and just take that all in!  I’m sure many of you feel the same about seeing a beautiful sunrise or sunset. 

In a movie I saw many years ago, two guys were sitting on a hill chatting.  They looked up at the beautiful sunset and one guy said, “Just look at that!  Yep, that’s the big guy!  Quite a paint brush He’s got!” 

That scene has been forever sketched into my mind and it was a great scene!  We could look at the beautiful view of a sunrise or sunset and know that God does, indeed, have quite a paintbrush, so to speak.  I like the view of mountains and hills, but nothing seems to compare to see a beautiful view in the sky of a sunset or sunrise.  It’s a beautiful view only made by the work of God’s hands. 

Years ago, I heard another quote about a sunset and it went like this, “God, I never thought purple and blue went together until I saw You put them into a sunset.”  What a response from a beautiful view only made by our Creator!

The heavens and skies do most certainly proclaim the work of His hands.  He is the awesome, Almighty Creator!  Let us always remember His beautiful Creation.