Fantastic Friday #625 - Care

Care

3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
Then You knew my path.
In the way in which I walk
They have secretly set a snare for me.

4 Look on my right hand and see,
For there is no one who acknowledges me;
Refuge has failed me;
No one cares for my soul.

5 I cried out to You, O Lord:
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living. Psalm 142:3-5


Do you find yourself wondering why you care or don't care about certain people or if God actually has the time to care about you? There are times in our life that can be difficult and we can begin to question how God has the time or concern to really care about me. All you have to do is look throughout scripture and see the people that God actually cared about to see how He cares. Then you must realize you only need to look as far as what He did to send His one and only son to die for us to see how much He cares. Daily we should start to look internally at how we care for others and then we can truly see how much our Father in Heaven cares about us. We have to give up our cares in this world to Him, and Cry out for Him to let Him know our gratitude and that we need His help. When we do this He will show His mercy in many ways, you just have to care enough to ask for help.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #624 - Anxiety

Anxiety

18 For I confess my iniquity;I am full of anxiety because of my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous and strong,And many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 And those who repay evil for good,They oppose me, because I follow what is good.
21 Do not forsake me, O Lord;O my God, do not be far from me!
22 Make haste to help me,O Lord, my salvation! Psalm 38:18-22

Do you feel anxious? This can be common to many of us for many reasons, but the enemy wants you to feel this way. The enemy wants you to feel hopeless. That is one of the challenges with each one of our lives, we just have a difficulty in overcoming that anxiety. That is why I like this passage along with many other verses in Psalms. David is crying out to the Lord and wants Him to help. The great thing about this is that God is always there to help. He is always there to help walk us away from sin or the anxiety that tries to defeat us. We just need to remember the answer is in prayer to our Father, who loves us and wants to help us.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #623 - Choose

Choose

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another. John 15:12-17
We all have choices we make every day on how we are going respond to other people. Maybe you have that really irritating person that just won't stop talking and continues to draw the conversation to what is going with them. Or you have those people that are attacking other people on social media even though they do not have an inkling of the truth, but just want to take a side against someone, kind of like the mob mentality. Maybe you have that person who constantly asks the same question over and over again, or you have those people who are supposed to know what they are doing, but they have zero clue on how to handle things. We have a choice on how we will respond to people. A lot of times our first thought might be to lash out, or comment to those people that are hurting others. Then again, you might think, it is better not to say anything so things don't cause a big uproar. Maybe we ought to see what God's command was in this verse. If we love others like he loves us, think of the change we could make. Remember God chooses us. Let that sink in a minute. If God loves us enough to choose us, sinners, then shouldn't we choose to love those around us and not berate them, beat them down, and treat them horribly? Choose the right kind of love, the forgiving love that is given to us by our Father in Heaven.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #622 - Flee

Good Morning,

Flee

11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12

While the lead-in verse to this passage in verse 10 is discussing money, I think you can apply this to most anything that is not of God and what he wants from our life. When we start the day, do we begin with the thought that I am going to flee the unrighteous life, or do we not even think about it during this part of our day? I know that one of the things that I begin prayer with each day is to ask God to guide me down the path of righteousness and not deviate from it. Sometimes people draw you into negativity which can pull you towards that unrighteous walk because you aren't leading in faith and love. God is very clear with how we should pursue righteousness, all we need to do is stop and remember these words. Faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Remember that the next time you wake up, today I am going to pursue righteousness in these four ways.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #621 - Mock

Mock

27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. 28 They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29 And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. 31 After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. Matthew 27:27-31

The first question I have is how did you feel after reading this passage? If you are a very visual person and need to see something to feel, then you might not have felt anything or felt very little. However, if words can paint a picture for you, then you might be able to feel the pain and suffering that He felt during this period. I know that as we walk throughout our day, we see and hear things all day long whether it be on the news, the internet or in person. The question is, how do we feel when we see or hear these things. Our society has become very numb to the world around us, and many times if we encounter a situation where someone is being mocked, it just doesn't impact us like it did in the past because it really isn't happening to us. I challenge you to look at things differently, to view mocking in a different manner and see how you can make a difference. I know that we can easily fall into the mocking of someone else, if another person is doing that. It is just human nature to follow along, or really it is the enemy telling us we should. I wonder if some Roman guards felt differently then what they were directed to do, and they just piled on with the insults and beatings because they didn't want to show weakness or had something to prove. We need to remember that God commanded us to love one another, he didn't command us to mock one another. I hope we all can make a difference in someone else's life like Jesus has made in so many.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #620 - Blessed

Blessed

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

I learned an interesting lesson this week and it came from two of my friends. When dealing with people, you wonder what good customer service looks like, and boy did I have some interesting customer service moments that I would like to forget. How these circumstances were handled ended up being very different, while one was very apologetic and concerned about my business the other was full of silence, and if I can refer to one of my friend's famous words, crickets. We can tend to walk through our lives not so concerned about how our personal actions can have a wave of effect on a number of people. For example, one person's negative comment can impact numerous people and have ongoing impact for days to come. My friends have a term they use when dealing with something and that is drip a little honey on it. Honey is full of natural sweetness and can go a long way in solving issues. We need more honey in this world and be able to bless people rather than spewing vinegar everywhere. Make a difference, be blessed and bless others with the kindness of honey.


Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #619 - Beauty

Beauty

5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Psalm 96: 5-7

What do you find to be beautiful? Maybe it is a sunrise or sunset, maybe it is the snow peaked mountains, or the splashing waves along a pristine beach. People place a lot of emphasis on beauty in our culture, and they can spend hours upon hours getting themselves dolled up for their daily tasks and chores. But is the exterior individual truly a view of what beauty is all about? I tend to think that since God created the world that has beauty that we should honor Him daily for His creation. In addition, he also created us in the manner that which we are presented daily as well. He also created what is in our heart and what travels from the outflow of our heart is where we can find true beauty. We need to look deeper than the physical features that God has created, because we are all beautiful in His eyes. We need to see the deeper beauty of what people can offer and not so much focus on the beauty that can fade away as quickly as the sun going down. Find that beauty in others, and your true beauty will shine forth.

Have a great weekend.