| Growing In Your Faith! | ||||
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This page will include things to help you grow in your faith! We will put up things like devotionals, verses to memorize, and eventually a "Dear So-and-so" advise column! Come back to this page often and, along with reading your Bible, praying, and going to fellowship, your faith will begin to grow! This is something I wrote a long time ago. It was initially meant to be a letter for a friend that was going through some hard times in his life, but it turned out to be something that also ministered to me! Devotional #1: "For I Know the Plans I Have For You" written by Crystal Reese "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 God has a plan for me. I do not see what he has in mind, but I know that he will use all of my circumstances to prepare me for this bright and wonderful future. He will not let even one bad experience go to waste. I look back on even the hardest moments in my life and I have a hard time seeing what good came through any of it. Everything seemed to have gone wrong. But then I see how God held me through every bit of it and how our relationship was grown because of it. And I realize that everything was worth it because I got to know God better and I was given a deeper sense of Gods love and grace. I realize that even though all else seems hopeless, God is always there to reveal himself to me, all I have to do is be open. And as of now, I cannot think of any bad circumstance that didn't either turn out for the better or make me a better person or draw me closer to God as a result. I guess the saying is true - you never can really understand that all you need is God until God is all you have! I know that it must hurt God when he sees us going through some rough roads, especially when we don't understand why - or we think that he has abandoned us. The truth is he has never and will never abandon us. He is always in complete control and only allows what is absolutely necessary. I am sure that if there was a less painful way for us to learn our lessons, then he would never let us go through any pain! But the truth is, sometimes the very best way to learn something is through pain and hard times. Take a child and a hot stove. The only way that child will never touch the stove is if she touched it once and felt the sting of the burn. Then she can understand what her mother meant. Sometimes I feel that if God didn't let us go through hard times, we would start to think that we didn't need him! I think that also if God guaranteed that his children would have care-free lives, then people would serve him not because they love him, but because they don't want problems! So when something bad happens to us, instead of sulking or thinking God doesn't care anymore, try asking yourself what you can learn from it! God doesn't let something happen to you - good or bad - and just waste it! ~~~ Come back soon for more devotionals!! If this one has helped you, please let me know! Email [email protected] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tips for reading your Bible! Want to know where to begin reading the Bible? First, I suggest reading through the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are at the beginning of the new testament. Second, I suggest you read the book of Romans! pick a book of the Bible and read it through (over the course of several days, of course! I don't recommend reading too much at once or you may get burned out.) What should you do before or during your reading? Before you start reading, say a prayer to God that he will help you learn what he wants you to learn and that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to the truth that is in the Bible. Second, keep a notebook and write down interesting verses, something that you learned, or questions that you may have. Then you can come back to them later! I recommend spending anywhere from 10 minutes to a half an hour reading each day or maybe even three to four times a week. I DON'T recommend reading a lot all at once or skipping many days in between reading, although if you have skipped a few days don't give up on it. Reading every day has to become a habit and sometimes its hard to form! If you only have a few minutes to read, read for that few minutes. A little is better than none! Also, try carrying a compact Bible around in your purse, backpack, car, or office. When you get a short break you can read what you can! (make sure that the version is the same in both bibles!)
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Verses to memorize! Memorizing verses is important. If you have a variety of verses stored in your memory, you will have them whenever you need them. You can use God's truth as a weapon to fight against temptation! That is why God's word is known as the "Sword of truth"! However, I don't recommend just memorizing random verses, so I have put together a list of verses to memorize and a schedule on when to do them! (Remembering where the verses came from is also important so that you can read the entire chapter when you are really struggling with something!) Week 1:Assurance of
Salvation! Week 2: God loves me how much??!!?? 1. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (Jesus) so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life!" John 3:16 (probably the most well known verse in the Bible, but equally as important! Even though you may have already memorized this verse, pay close attention to what the verse is actually saying!) 2. "But God has made his love clear to use, in that, while we were still sinners, he died for us." Romans 5:8 3. "And may you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep and how high his love really is" Ephesians 3:18 4. "My son, don't be angry when the Lord punishes you. Don't be discouraged when he has to show you where you are wrong. For when he punishes you, it proves that he loves you." Hebrews 12:5,6a this next one is a great group of verses for you to read and memorize, but it wont be listed in the ones for this week (because is too long) You can look it up: Romans 8:31-39. It really describes how great God's love really is!
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