blessing

Make it a Habit to Praise God

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we’re completely in control of our destiny.

After all, isn’t that what the American dream is all about — forging our own way in the world toward a life of success and easy living? This ideal has been ingrained in most of us since we were small children. 

In fact, if we’re not striving for success, then we may even think that there’s something wrong with us. We believe that “if it’s to be, it’s up to me.” 

Often, however, this belief can create unbelievable stress on us, leaving us with incredible guilt if we don’t live up to the expectations placed on us by ourselves and others.

However, when we foster these beliefs we completely leave God out of the equation. 

He is intensely concerned with every aspect of our lives and plays a huge role in the success of our daily activities. We would be remiss to ignore Him in this process.

God is at work 24/7 ensuring things work out for our best. 

All you have to do is read Romans 8:28 to understand that:

for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

In addition, we read in Psalms 95:2:

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

I believe that praising God and giving Him glory reinforces His role in our lives. When we give God the praise and glory He deserves, it allows us to see and experience that there’s something bigger than us. 

It realigns our mindset to rely on the God of the universe and not just ourselves and our own skills.

This realignment can lead to an awesome blessing in our lives. Acknowledging God as bigger and more powerful than we are takes a huge chunk of the responsibility of our success off our shoulders. 

Sure, we have to do our part. We must show up each day and

whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.

Col. 3:23

But, ultimately we can relax about the outcome of our daily challenges, knowing in our hearts that our success rests with God. 

After all,

It is he who gives you power to get wealth.

Deut. 8:18a

And,

A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

John 3:27

Getting the proper spiritual alignment with God will also help ease any feelings of anxiety and depression.

Science has proven that adopting an attitude of gratefulness (for example, giving God praise for what He’s done for us) will help us feel better both emotionally and physically.

It’s really simple when we put everything in perspective — put the kingdom of God first in your life, and He will take care of everything else (Matt. 6:33).

Is Sin Holding You Back?

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

Some of us (myself included) really need to sit down and take a hard look at our lives. 

The reason? Sin that we’ve been holding on to. For many of us, we choose to keep committing the same sin or sins over and over, even though we know they’re wrong.

It could be something as seemingly innocent as passing along gossip, or it could be something worse. Even though in God’s eyes, sin is sin.

The problem is, God can’t bless us fully whenever we’re knowingly and willfully sinning against Him. He would love to unlock his full blessings on our lives, but our stubborn hearts are too rebellious to handle what He would give to us.

Instead, we have to settle for a second-best kind of existence, where we’re only receiving part of what God would have for us.

What’s more, we often blame God when we’re in this situation. I know, because I’ve done it far too often myself.

We wonder why we don’t feel God moving in our lives and wonder why things aren’t going better for us in one or more areas of our lives.

The reason is that we are hurting ourselves by holding onto sin.

That’s why we must look deeply into our lives—our habits, our interactions with others, our attitude toward God, and just our daily lives in general. If we do, we may find the source of many of our problems.

Is there a sin that you struggle with over and over?

Maybe you’re cold-hearted toward your spouse when you should instead be a helpmate to them.

Are you being dishonest at work and not putting in a full effort for your employer?

Are you being wasteful with your money and not tithing and giving offerings?

It could be anything. The thing is to be aware of this besetting sin and wipe it out of your life so that you can grow closer to God.

The closer we are to Him, the more He can bless our lives to do His work here on earth.

When we are doing the work He has planned in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10), we’ll be happier, our lives will be fuller and richer, and we’ll be less tempted to sin.