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.
Centering Our Hearts
One of the most important biblical topics is your own heart. Throughout the biblical story, God shows that He is not nearly as interested in your money, time, or service as much as He is your heart.
Why is this important? Jesus taught his disciples that the heart is the center of our lives. Our emotions and our desires flow from the condition of our heart. If God gets access to our heart, then the rest of our lives follow after.
In Matthew 6:21, Jesus says that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. The things that we treasure in our life reveal where our heart truly is. The things that we think about, spend our money on, and use our energy to attain—that is where our heart is.
But it's not enough to just not let our hearts dwell on those things. Instead, we need to train our hearts to dwell on Jesus. The apostle Paul encourages us to dwell on the things that are of God:
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,...
