5 Beneficial Areas to Grow in Christ

How do we grow in Christ?

Did you experience growing pains during childhood?

Most of us probably remember how growing up had hard, celebratory, and memorable moments. Now, we sometimes even grow weary of adulting.

Likewise, the Bible describes ways we grow in Christ as believers.

So here are five of those beneficial areas.

(1.) Mindset: Grow in Christ by seeking the mind of Christ

This is of utmost importance and a good place to start. Why?

Because our mindset is connected to everything about us. And it influences our outlook in life and plays a role in our choices and actions.

But how do we go about seeking the mind of Christ? The Bible tells us: set our minds on things above(Colossians 3:2); do not transform to the world, but transform by the renewing of our mind(Romans 12:2); and to take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

More biblical wisdom gives us further insight:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

What we think about, set our minds on, affects every aspect of our life. Do we desire to have the mind of Christ?

These scriptures give us intentional steps to a beneficial mindset.

“‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV)

(2.) Heart Focus

How God’s Power is Perfect in Our Weakness

Culture teaches us to stay strong and overcome weakness because it just isn’t pretty. Yet, in our heavenly Father’s Kingdom weakness takes on a whole new meaning. Because God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

“How strong are you?” I used to ask my children this when they were young. Both my son and daughter answered by striking a pose to show their biceps.

But on my own journey from child to adult, I learned culture’s definition of what makes a person strong. 

And I learned how weakness comes in many shapes and sizes. 

Like how weight lifting proves my arms lack physical strength. Or, how low self-esteem, anxiety, or discouragement labels me a weak soul. 

Also, how failure to excel in a class, understand a concept at work, or carry strong opinions defines me as weak-minded.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10b)

Paul’s visions and thorn in the flesh described in this chapter kept him from boasting in himself. He had endured many hardships and persecutions. Still, he discovered strength was found in his weakness.

While people often look down on weakness, God’s children look up to Him to make us strong.

What Culture Says…What God Says

Culture tells us to strive for independence. God says, Depend on Me.

Culture calls people weak who struggle to juggle all the things in life. God says, You don’t have to struggle to juggle anything. In fact, if you are doing the juggling act, you aren’t resting in Me. 

Culture calls us weak unless we compete in the workplace and go for the jugular. God says, Find your identity in Me. Seek community, not competition.

Culture says we are weak if we need help and we can’t pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. God says, Look to the hills, where does your help come from? From Me the God of heaven and earth. (see Psalm 121:1)

So God’s calling all perfectionists, all type-A personalities, all pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps people and every get-it-done man, woman, boy, and girl. 

And He’s calling all children of God who keep trying and striving to obtain the things of God on our own or living the Christian life in our own strength.

3 Reasons God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

Jesus is Enough and That’s Enough for Me

Have you ever felt like you’re not enough? My hand’s raised. 

Maybe the less-than feeling stems from a relationship, job, competition, role, life dream, comparison, our own inner critic, perfectionism, or other.

And the enemy of our soul is often behind our negative self-talk and the world’s expectations that lead to I’m-not-enough thoughts. 

But—and this “but” may surprise you—the phrase You are enough circulating on social media and in articles and podcasts and so on, gives us the idea that we are enough in and of ourselves. 

While I really do understand the sentiments behind the popular statement; friends, it’s simply not true. I am not enough in myself. Jesus is enough. 

Because Jesus is enough, it gives us a complete identity in Him. We no longer need to concern ourselves with what the world or people say is enough. 

Also, we quit comparing ourselves to anyone else. It’s so freeing to know who I am in Christ and letting go of comparison. I’m thankful God doesn’t create cookie-cutter people.

So let’s look at how Jesus is E.N.O.U.G.H. and how it helps us see ourselves in the correct light.

Jesus Is Enough

E – Endured the Cross. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)

Jesus endured the cross so we didn’t have to.

Knowing Jesus and Making Him Known

During my early years of being a Christ-follower, I missed an important aspect of the Christian life. Christ not only desired that I know Him as Savior and Lord, but also that I continued to grow in knowing Jesus more intimately on a daily basis. 

Because this is the only way to let Christ live in and through my life, and for others to see Jesus in me.

Eventually, this became my mission statement for my speaking, writing, and blogging ministry: 

Know Jesus more and make Him known.

To really know someone, we spend time with that person. And we grow to know them more through two-way communication and interaction.

Knowing Jesus

These same simple principles hold true to K.N.O.W. Jesus.

K – Keep our relationship alive and well. Cultivate our love relationship with Jesus as if our life depends on it. Because most of the time, dear friend, we will find this to be the case. A growing and vibrant friendship with Jesus makes a world of difference in the ups and downs of life.

N – Never stop investing time. My adult son recently moved halfway across the country. It drove home the point to continue to connect with him. We frequently text, call and FaceTime. We also started a family group on Marco Polo so all of us can send and receive videos.

Make it a habit to spend time with Christ. Connect with who Jesus is by reading the Bible and getting to know the words Christ spoke, the way He prayed, and the words spoken about Him. Never move away from Jesus emotionally or spiritually.

5 Epic Things About Amazing Grace

Amazing grace!

The Lord has me thinking about grace lately. How it’s the foundation our faith is built on.

And how God gives us amazing grace—His love and mercy and favor underserved by us, yet freely given to us through Christ.

Because grace came in the form of a baby in Bethlehem. Grace grew into a man who spoke about God’s Kingdom and performed miracles.

And Grace died on Calvary’s cross, rose from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of the Father.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (ESV) “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” John 1:16 (ESV)

And grace changes who we are. It changes our eternal destiny. Also, grace changes how the Lord sees us—under grace, no longer condemned by the enemy or sin.

I’m not sinless but saved, not perfect but forgiven, not rejected but chosen, and not unloved but cherished. This identity in Christ comes through grace, amazing grace.

G – God paid the price: Amazing Grace

God extended amazing grace to us at such a high price, His Son.

4 Reasons God’s Word is the Truth We Need

So much of the chaos surrounding America and the world stems from the absence of truth. God is Truth and His Word is Truth. And the Bible is the Truth we need.

When it comes to what the world says versus God’s Word, I’m going with God every time.

Why? Because truth is not up for debate. God’s holy Word wins hands down. 

Let’s look at 4 things that make God’s Word the truth we need. Especially in the current state of our world.

(1.) God-breathed and Useful: God’s Truth

God’s Word comes from Him, the Creator, and sets the standards for how to live the Christian life. 

The Bible is alive, the living Word of God. 

But how do we go about living God’s Word? And how does the Bible show through in our lives? 

Living Scripture in our daily lives equates to a life of no compromise. Because our goals, desires, values, morals, and decisions are affected by Scripture. Also, our relationships, lifestyle, worldview, heart, mind, and so on, stay bent toward scriptural truths. 

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV, emphasis added)

Notice this verse doesn’t say some Scripture is good for you to live a pleasing life to the Lord. No, “all” Scripture, the whole counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation. And it’s breathed out (living), and profitable in living the Christian faith. Because it trains us in righteousness. 

(2.) Nourishing and Sustaining

12 Prayers for Things We Exchange with God

Have you ever made an exchange and received the best end of the deal?

In elementary school, I exchanged notebooks with a girl in my class. Her pink and glitter cover dazzled and captured my attention. But my notebook paled in comparison. 

So, I wondered why she ever agreed to such an uneven exchange.

Then I realized exchanges with God are the same, my meager for His ample.

So I begin praying prayers of exchange.

Here are 12 prayers for powerful exchanges using scriptures.

Exchange Our Measly

1.) Our lack for His bounty.

“You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance” Psalm 65:11, NIV.

Father, You are abundant and bountiful. Exchange the areas where I lack spiritually, with Your wonderful bounty. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

2.) Our shame for God’s mercy.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” Ephesians 2:4-5, ESV.

Lord, thank You for Your great mercy. Help me to keep exchanging shame for mercy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

3.) Our sorrow for the Lord’s joy. 

“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” Isaiah 35:10, ESV.

Lord, exchange my sorrow in this life for Your everlasting joy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

4.) Our darkness for His light.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” 1 John 1:5, ESV.

God, I long for Your light in a dark world, thank You for giving me the light of Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hope Changes Your Life Forever

Do life’s hurts, heartaches, and injustices leave you feeling hopeless? Me too. But there’s something I want you to know. You are never far from hope. And hope changes your life forever.

All humans hope.

Still, sometimes things turn out differently than we hoped.

But the Bible tells us authentic hope is found in the God of hope.

So let’s look at 4 ways hope changes our life forever.

(1.) Life’s Drive-Thru Window Lacks Hope

Just as we often end up with the wrong order or a problem with our order at a drive-thru window, the world offers us hope that fizzles and fades away.

The only choices on the menu offer false promises. High hopes placed in people, programs, possessions, money, goals, careers, or religion. None of these serve us well.

People fail us. Programs unravel. Possessions leave us hollow. Money never satisfies. Unreached goals magnify our weaknesses. Aspiring careers crash. And religion commands our tireless effort.

God’s Word offers a hope established before drive-thru windows…before the world even existed.

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 ESV). The NIV states it, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

The only hope worth waiting on comes straight from the ample, fully-stocked windows of heaven. No drive-thru service needed. This is a real and lasting hope found in the true Hope-Giver.

(2.) Hope in True Love: Hope Changes Your Life

“He loves me, he loves me not.”

Confident God’s Working for Our Good

Have you ever questioned what God’s doing? My hand’s raised. But once we know how God thinks about us and sees us, then we are confident God’s working for our good.

I used to flat out question God in a particular situation.

Because I couldn’t fathom the end result and even wondered if the Lord really wanted my good.  

Like when I lost a job and lost a baby in utero.

And the times I didn’t get the job or the award or the “thing” I wanted. 

Also, when my father died and the ache never seemed to go away. 

Oh, there’s more lost hopes and dreams along the way. And I imagine for you, too.

Even now, I still have to remind my heart to go to God’s Word, since Scripture reminds us of truths that point to how God’s working for our good.

I pray each reminder encourages you of God’s never ending love, care, affection, and good for you.

God loves us with a sunup to sundown, 24/7 kind of love: Confident God’s Working

God’s love is a sure love…never lost, only found. And it gives us hope in a guaranteed pledge of love that’s never eliminated from our lives.

“This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” Lamentations 3:21-22 (ESV)

Look at how this love is described in Ephesians 3:18-19 when the Apostle Paul noted how he prayed for the church:

“..may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (NIV, emphasis added)

The Lord always works behind the scenes on our behalf.

Have We Forgotten Our God Never Fails?

The world seems to have gone half mad and continues to spin out of control. If you’re anything like me, “breaking news” also breaks my trust in positions, programs, and people. But in the midst of all the uncertainty, I’m reminded that our God never fails. Never. 

While we fail, this is never the case with our faithful and Almighty God.

He never fails His children. And He never fails as God. Because it’s outside God’s capacity to fail at anything. 

Humanly speaking, failing is a natural part of life. But God is supernatural, failing is not in His wheelhouse. 

So we learn from our own failures, how to cope with difficult life circumstances, and try to find peace in all the world’s chaos.

Still, let’s look at 5 ways to remind our hearts that God never fails (F-A-I-L-S).

F – Focus on God’s ability: God never fails

God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” Ephesians 2:20 (ESV)

There’s not a better time to really know who God is and what God does than right now in our nation and world. 

We trust God’s ability, not our own.

God. Is. Able. 

A – Acknowledge God’s sovereignty