Oops!

We all mess up sometimes. Just the other day I was cleaning at my grandma’s house when I accidentally knocked a porcelain toothbrush holder onto the floor, and it broke. Oops! I felt terrible. But I cleaned up the mess and apologized for what happened. And you know what is so great about my grandma? She said, that’s okay, no big deal. She forgave me right on the spot. She didn’t hold it over me or make me pay her back for it. She just forgave me and moved on. And then, I was able to move on and continue cleaning. Because my grandma really has this principle down, I know if I ever mess something up, I don’t have to fear letting her know about it.

Grandma Susie and me at my high school graduation.

This principle is the principle of forgiveness, as written in the Bible.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God will always forgive us, if we confess our sins. The Greek translation of the word “sin” means to miss the mark. Like when you’re aiming for the bulls-eye, but you miss the dart board. I meant to clean my grandma’s house, not to make a bigger mess, and certainly not to break her things. It was a mistake. I didn’t accomplish what I had aimed to do, at first. But, I did get the shards of porcelain cleaned up and then continued to clean the rest of the bathroom.

I could have let the incident derail my progress, but I didn’t. Wouldn’t that have been much worse? The worst part of sinning is that is gets you out of fellowship with God. He wants you in fellowship, that’s why he makes it so easy to get back in it when you make an oops.

This principle is conditional because of that first little word in the verse, “if.” When the conditions are met, when we confess our sins, God forgives us and cleanses us from all righteousness.

Relationships with other humans should be the same way. If someone hurts us, should we dwell on it until bitterness grows in out hearts? NO! (For a post about bitterness and it’s best cure, kindness, check out Terri’s post at Supporting Godly Women.)

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8 (KJV)

These are the things we are supposed to think about, not all the bad things. Once someone admits their mistake or apologizes, we should forgive them like God forgives us. What are God’s conditions? There is only one, and that is that we confess our sins. Are there any more strings attached? Nope. It’s that simple with God and it should be that simple between people. There are of course situations when people will go above that. Say if they broke something of yours. They may apologize immediately and go to the store and replace it for you later on. To be in line with the word we should forgive them when they apologize, not when they replace it.

And this can apply to ourselves too. We can’t fix our mistakes until we acknowledge them. There are times when we do things that are not good for ourselves. Whether that is splurging on something we don’t need and we end up with buyer’s remorse, or we indulge in a bad diet and raise our cholesterol a few points. The first step in fixing or stopping these problems is acknowledging them, and then forgiving ourselves. Then we can go to God and ask him how we can handle those situations better in the future.

If God forgives us, we need to forgive ourselves too. Make God’s reality your reality!

:002 What is God Like?

Reblogged from Supporting Godly Women:

We hear plenty of things about God, but what is He really like? I know what I think He’s like, or how my pastor describes Him, but what is He really all about? What are the characteristics of God?

One Characteristic of My Son is “Happy.”

First let’s define characteristic. Webster’s dictionary defines it as a “distinguishing trait or quality.” Abraham Lincoln was honest.

Read more… 589 more words

Here is a great post on what the love of God is. Follow the Supporting Godly Women blog to continue learning about the characteristics of God's love.

Lucky or blessed?

“No, I’m not lucky, I’m blessed, yes,” this is a line from a song I hear on the radio quite a bit. I’m not really a fan of the song, just of this line. These lyrics are what got me thinking about the subject of this blog.

There is a difference between being lucky and being blessed. And there is also a difference in the mindset of being one or the other. Being lucky is the idea that by chance, something in the universe made a situation go in your favor. Being blessed is attributing a given situation to the goodness of God or another person. I strive to keep myself in the mindset of being blessed, rather than the mindset that things happen by chance.

For example, it wasn’t luck that got me a raise at work, it was my boss who gave me a raise, and totally blessed me by it.
It wasn’t luck that I looked both ways before entering an intersection, even though I had a green light, but rather I was blessed by God to tune into my surroundings and see that the pickup truck was going to run the red light.
I don’t always know that its God working in a situation, but it definitely can’t hurt to thank him either way. I’d rather thank God for something that may or may not be his doing, than attribute it to luck/chance when it was his doing.

Being blessed has a lot to do with acknowledging that God or another person has done something for you, and being thankful for it. An attitude of gratitude can reap even more blessing.

Here are a couple of verses I like that help drum up this attitude of gratitude:

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV)

“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” Ephesians 5:19-20

And lastly, Psalm 92 is pretty great too.

So, the next time something good happens to you, are you going to give the gratitude to luck, or God?

Sharing Life

I realized last night why I really love my fiancé. I love him because we share every area of our lives. I’ve heard that life can be broken down into five main areas which include: finance, relationships, spiritual, emotional/mental, and physical. We take care of each other in all of these areas.

I’ll give an example of each.
Finance, we pool our resources to pay bills together.
Relationships, obviously we are in a relationship together, but we also help each other with other relationships if problems/difficulties arise.
Spiritual, we constantly talk about God and we pray together everyday.
Emotional/mental, we help each other unwind when it’s been a stressful day.
Physical, we take care of each other when we are sick.

These are just a few examples of how intertwined are lives are. They are so intertwined in fact that it no longer feels like my life and his life, but more like our life. And that’s how I knew we were ready to get married. I’ve heard that marriage is two lives becoming one, but it always seemed so cliché until now. Now I get it. I understand that marriage is about sharing your whole life with another person. What better gift could you give to someone?

I know this is a personal note, and doesn’t pertain to the bible much,  but the idea came about after praying and the manifestations last night. It was too good of a revelation not to share.

What is the cherry on your sundae?

While surfing Facebook this morning, I came across a couple of verses, that I thought were just cherries on my sundae.

“Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: (14) But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13-14 (KJV)

How great is that? We can drink and drink and drink from the well of this world, but we will always get thirty again. But just one sip of the water Jesus gives us, and we shall never thirst again. Once we are born again (taking that sip of water from Jesus,) we get holy spirit (“a well of water”) and salvation (“springing up into everlasting life.”) And that is just the first sip!

Romans 10:9-10 is that first sip. And even though we aren’t thirsty anymore, we may like to indulge more by taking more sips, and drinks, and gulps. If we have  the well inside us, there is nothing holding us back .

It’s like dessert after a filling dinner. You’re not hungry anymore, but dang does that sundae sound good. So go ahead, dig into God’s word; find the cherries and chocolate syrup and so many other good things. I promise they are there. I even found one today.

Let me know if you find any, and please share them in the comments!

♥ Jessica

Supporting Godly Women

Hey everyone,

I’m doing my first teaching tomorrow night at Supporting Godly Women. I’d love to have a full crowd of “supporters.”
Sorry guys, women only (all ages).
It’s at 2940 Grand Ave. at 6pm.
My teaching is titled “He’ll put you first.”

I hope to see you tomorrow!

Jessica

Working Towards Healthier Relationships

There are times when we get mad, upset or frustrated at our friends, our family and even our significant others. We’re only human. God gave us these emotions and they are a normal part of life. Of course we want these little episodes to be far and few between. But when one does happen, the bible suggests for us to do the following:

“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” Ephesians 4:26 (KJV)

“‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,” Eph. 4:26 (NIV)

This is pretty simple and a good rule for any healthy relationship: Don’t go to bed angry with each other.

The bible also has a very important reason for this as stated in the next verse. “Neither give place to the devil.” Eph. 4:27 (KJV) Stewing over a fight with someone opens opportunities for other negative thoughts to eat away at your mind and image of that person. I’ve been there. I’ve  gotten mad at someone for something small they did that irritated me and next thing you know I’m thinking terrible things about them like, “Well she’s just fat.” or “He’s so ugly no wonder he would do that.”

It definitely isn’t God’s will for us to feel that way. Letting one negative thought creep in, leads to another and even more after that if we don’t take control of our thoughts. That’s where the following verse comes into play. “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;” Eph. 4:23 (KJV) We have control of our thoughts and can renew our minds. We can cut off the negative thoughts before they turn into negative actions.

This may take some work, but it makes for much healthier relationships. Hash things out before you go to bed, and I guarantee you’ll sleep better.

“Hold Your Peace”

We’ve all heard the stereotypical wedding ceremony, when at the very end, the officiant says “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” Well, maybe that’s only in the movies.

I came across a verse I really liked. Singularly the verse was great, but reading the context put it in much better perspective.

“The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” Exodus 14:14 (KJV)

Basically it’s saying, “stay calm, God will fight for you.” Pretty dang cool.

This is actually Moses speaking to the children of Israel as the are fleeing Egypt with the Pharaoh and all the chariots of Egypt right on their tail.  “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Exodus 14:13.

And what did God do? He fought that battle for them, and they didn’t have to do a thing except listen to Moses (who was listening to God,) camp in the right place (Exd. 14:2) and cross the dry land where the sea was parted for them. (Exd. 14:21-22) God took care of the rest. Not only did he get the children of Israel out of harms way, he killed all the Egyptians while he was at it. (Exd. 14:28)

“And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared[respected] the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.” Exd. 14:31

That’s not the only fight God has ever fought, he fights for us everyday. We can ask God, “is this something I should take care of?” And if he says he’s got it handled, just like he did with Moses, then we should take the same advice as them, and hold our peace.

All your needs shall be met

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (KJV)

I just love this verse. God shall supply ALL your need. Not just a little bit, not just some of your need, but ALL of it. How great is that?

But one must also remember the difference between a want and need. You may want a new car, but do you need a new car? Would a used car do just as well?

That’s not to say God won’t supply some of your wants too! Because he will! God loves to bless us by supplying our wants too. That’s just not a promise he has made. Realistically, some of our wants are a little ridiculous. I’m sure you’ve heard “be careful what you wish for, because it might just come true.” Can you imagine if every want was supplied by God? We might be in some hot water. God knows the difference between a want and a need, even when we don’t.