Suffering in the life of a christian

Suffering is present in the lives of Christians Good news is Suffering is temporary ;During suffering its important to trust in God fully and understand that suffering plays the following role in a life of a Christian
Make you more obedient ( Psalm 119:67).
Deepen your insight into God's Word( Psalm 119:71). Increase your compassion and effectiveness in ministry ( 2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Teach you to wait patiently on God ( Psalm 27:14).
Make your joy less dependent on circumstances ( Habakkuk 3:16-19).
Make you appreciate God all the more when He restores you ( Job 42:7-17).

Therefore when you suffer never ask why me rather ask yourself how can I show faith hope and love in this situationbe blessed.

Everyone falls

King Solomon, the wisest man to ever walk the face of the earth once said (Proverbs 24:16): "A righteous person falls seven times and gets up" Welcome to being human. So you fell? Get up, brush yourself off and keep on moving. There is only one thing much worse than messing up. It's holding on to it afterwards. Everyone fails. The best just get up and turn the page. They don't live in the past. They learn from it and move on. Don't let your mistakes drag you down permanently. We all have aspirations in life, whether its academic, financial, health or relationships. There are accomplishments we hope to achieve. But guess what, we are human and so we fail. we trip, stumble and fall. How many times do we drop the ball on something, miss a deadline, bomb a meeting, fail a test, forget an important date, indulge in something that was wrong or do something selfish that hurt those around us? When we are doing it we are so driven but once it's done, we realize it's wrong! And that's when we choose to either allow our failures to drag us down further by giving up just to try to rationalize our actions or try to blame it somebody else... or STOP. Realize it was wrong, learn something productive and then turn the page. King Solomon's distinction is not who makes mistakes, it's who get up afterwards. Choose to get up, and turn the page.

This is an article by the TBN ministries it encouraged me and I thought of sharing

Praying for our husbands Head to toe

I recently heard of this concept about praying for my husband head to toe when I looked it up I liked it and adopted it in my praying for my husband.
I do pray for my husband but looking at this outline of head to toe prayer I realized there are many areas I do not touch when saying a prayer for my husband.
Wives if u like it adopt it and lets lift our husbands up in prayer because What our husbands need most is our respect and what our marriages need most is prayer.

Dear Lord, I pray for my husband from Head to Toe.
His Head
“Father, I ask that You would continually renew my husband’s mind, resulting in a transformed life. Help him bring every thought into captivity to Christ to make it obedient to You. Give him a greater understanding of Your Word. Help him to think on things that are pure and right and worthy of praise.” (Psalm 119:15, Rom 12:2, 2 Cor.10:5)
His Eyes
“Lord, keep opening my husband’s eyes to deep spiritual truths. Help him to see things as You see them. Please guard his eyes from looking at worthless things. ” (Psalm 119:18, Psalm 119:37)
His Ears
“Father, let my husband hear Your voice clearly. Help him to recognize your voice with certainty. Protect him from listening to anyone who is not seeking and walking with You. Help him not to be affected negatively by what others say and to discern between good and evil. Give him the ability to determine what is of You and what is not.” (Is 30:21, 1 Kings 3:9, 1 John 4:1)
His Mouth
“Help my husband to speak the truth in love. Help him to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Give him the couraage to lovingly confront when necessary. Let the words he speaks be Yours, not his own. Help him speak words that bring grace and truth to the hearers. I also pray that you will help him to grow in his ability and desire to communicate with you and others.” (Psalm 19:14, 119:13, 41:3; Eph 4:15, 4:29; James 1:19)
His Heart
“Give my husband a heart that seeks passionately after You. Teach him to guard his heart with diligence. Help him deal with anything in his heart that is not pleasing to You. Create in him a pure heart. Enable him to lead our family with integrity.” (Psalm 78:72, 119:10-11; Prov 4:23; 1 3:13)
His Hands
“Lord, I pray that everything my husband does would be done with his whole heart, serving You rather than man. I pray that You will also help him to increase his skills and his abilities. Bless everything he puts his hands to.” (Psalm 24:3-4, Col 3:23)
His Feet
I pray my husband would love Your Words and walk in Your ways. I pray He would be to walk in a manner that is worthy of You, bearing fruit in every good work. Jesus show him how to creatively share your truth with our kids as he does life with them each day. Father, when he walks through the valley of the shadow of doubt and difficulties, I pray he would fear no evil
For it is in Jesus' Name, I do pray Amen!

Gods Promise and Provision

Phil 1:6

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

"Do you sometimes feel as though you aren't making progress in your spiritual life? When God starts a project, he completes it! As with the Philippians. God will help you grow in grace until he has completed his work in your life. When you are discouraged, remember that God won't give up on you. He promises to finish the work he has begun. When feel incomplete, unfinished, or distressed by your shortcoming, remember God's promise and provision."

Re committing my life to God in 2012:

·         Luke 9:57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

I really want to say like what this man said to Jesus and mean it and live by it even as this year is beginning .I was just wondering what really keeps my feet from following God or being at Gods service

Here is  a number of things I noted

1.      Lack of zeal for Gods things(Lukewarmness)

·         Revelation 2:4-5 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.

How do I beat this up I have to fill my heart with the things of God that way my love for God will grow  more?

·         Matthew 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all  your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment

Finding balance in my life and setting the priorities right

·         Matthew 6:33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

2.      Getting Comfortable

When life is ok and I have the basics that I need as person I easily get comfortable  but this is wrongI am warned not to be comfortable in this world

·         Isaiah 32:9-11You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me;you daughters who feel secure,  hear what I have to say! In little more than a year  you who feel secure will tremble;the grape harvest will fail,  and the harvest of fruit will not come.  Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure!Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.

·         Amos 6:1,4Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,the notables of the first of the nations,to whom the house of Israel resorts!  Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches and eat lambs from the flock,and calves from the stall;

·         Rev 3:17 You say, 'I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!' And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked

3.      Drifting away from God

Its easy for my convictions to conform to the ways of the world with time

·         Hebrew2:1We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

I must daily replenish myself with his word

4.      Lack of fruit

·         Luke 13:6-9Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

·         Matthew 21:43"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

5.      Lack of commitment to the body

It’s very easy for me at times to think do I really need to be in the fellowship can I just worship God from the comfort of my home do I have to do things of the church its just in the light of just wanting to be comfortable and by that alienating myself from the church activities

1Corinthians 12:14-20

Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Questions that I am asking myself each day and making choices based on the questions

                                I.            Can I say that I love God with all my heart with all my mind and with all my spirit?

                              II.            Am I seeking Gods Kingdom First

                            III.            Am I a lukewarm

                            IV.            Do I make excuses

                              V.            Am I becoming more like Christ in my character?

Kindness

 Last Sunday as a church each member picked a Fruit of the spirit. We were encouraged to learn more on the Fruit of the spirit that we picked up and above all to pray and try to develop the fruit in our lives.  When it came to my turn I picked out Kindness. And here are some things I am learning

What is Kindness

Showing compassion, being   generous, being of service, hospitability, giving to those in need, being sensitive to listen and to practically help where help is needed even when the people that need this help are not good to us . It is active goodwill towards others .Wow

In 2Timothy 3:3 we are warned that at the end times people will be without natural affection. However kindness is possible if we will choose to humble ourselves and act when we become aware of the need of anyone in need.

This is a call for us to develop kindness, and we can do it because God has already enabled us by His Spirit.

Kindness ideas

• Holding the door open for someone in the shopping malls or the shop next door
• Giving food or toiletries to the homeless or the street kids
• Babysitting someone else kids
• Easy to forgive especially our members of family when they make mistakes
• Embracing my mistakes Take full responsibility to learn from the mistakes and make amends instead of blaming myself Among others

O God, Thou art my God. Early will I seek thee…….

I am not an early person but as this year begins I have set a goal to learn from the mighty men of God in the way they rose early to direct their prayers to the One who would hear and assist them in the endeavors of the day. That is the Almighty God! Before the day began they had full confidence that God was with them.

Its wonderful assurance because God himself promises to be found by those that seek him early Prov 8:17 - I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

David  awakened early for prayer Ps 5:3- My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer to You, and will look up. Ps 88:13 - But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Ps 119:147 - I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. (NIV)
Abraham rose early in the morning to stand before the Lord [Gen 19.27].
Jacob rose early in the morning, to worship the Lord [Gen 28.18].
Moses rose early to build an altar to God [Exod 24.4] and to meet God at Sinai [Exod 34.4].
Hannah and Elkanah rose early to worship God [1 Sam 1.19].
Job rose early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of his children: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.[Job 1.5],

And Above all that Jesus the son of GOD is on record a number of times in the gospels as going out before dawn to a solitary place for prayer “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35)

Wow with this in mind I will now henceforth start out my day connecting with God I trust this will change my life and the life of those I will be praying for.