I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Power, Love, and Discipline
One of the miracles of salvation is that when we have faith in Christ, God not only saves us—He also gives us the power to live according to His will for us. Your life in Christ is one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit living within you.
This is a great gift, but a big shift. It often takes time to change how we think and act. We may have bad habits that take hard work to correct, or patterns of thought that are challenging to break.
Thankfully, God promises to be with us and to empower us to make these changes in our life. When Paul is writing to his mentee Timothy, he encourages him to continue to develop the gift that God has given to him. While we are saved in an instant, it takes a lifetime to develop and work out what God is doing inside of us.
In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul reminds Timothy that God’s Spirit does not give us fear or cowardice. Those things are tools of the devil who is trying to keep us from God. But the Spirit of God empowers us with confidence in Him. He gives us the power to live out the purposes of God in our life. This power is one that we need to continually remember as we face challenges.
The Spirit of God also empowers us to love others. It can be difficult to love people, especially those who may have hurt us. But God promises to give us His power and love so that we can be a light to everyone around us.
God’s Spirit also empowers us with self-discipline. We won’t experience spiritual change and growth if we don’t train and practice—but that takes time, dedication, and endurance. We need to be consistent in doing the things that God asks us to do, including reading God’s Word and talking to Him. Thankfully, when we belong to God, He helps us. He gives us the strength, stamina, and soundness of mind to build habits that help us become more like Him.
Today, take some time to talk with God. Ask Him to empower you by His Spirit towards power, love, and self-discipline. Consider how God is leading you to change the way you live. As you do that, remember that God doesn’t give us fear. He fills us with love because He wants us to experience a confident relationship with Him.
“The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door: and I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever: neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant ...
